
























NEW THOUGHT 
CHRISTIANIZED 


BY 

JAMES M. CAMPBELL, D.D. 

Author of “Paul the Mystic,” “Grow 
Old Along with Me,” etc. 


NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 










?bF<sio 

C & 


Copyright, 1917, 

By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 



MAY 14 1917 

©CI.A460793 

T- U • I . 



CONTENTS 

PAGK 

CHAPTER I 

AFFIRMATION 3 

CHAPTER II 

THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 11 

CHAPTER III 

SALVATION BY DISPLACEMENT 21 

CHAPTER IV 

WHAT IS MAN? 27 

CHAPTER V 

INTROSPECTION 35 

CHAPTER VI 

FEAR AND ITS ANTIDOTES 41 

CHAPTER VII 

THE FOLLY OF WORRY 49 

CHAPTER VIII 


THE UPWARD LOOK 


55 


IV 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

CHAPTER IX 

THE PRAYER OF REALIZATION 61 

CHAPTER X 

ADJUSTING THE BALANCE 67 

CHAPTER XI 

REPOSE—AND HOW TO GET IT 73 

CHAPTER XII 

HEALTH AND RELIGION 81 

CHAPTER XIII 

TRUE OPTIMISM 89 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE POWER OF INITIATIVE 95 

CHAPTER XV 

SELF-CONTROL VerSUS DIVINE-CONTROL 103 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE HIGHEST SELFHOOD 111 

CHAPTER XVII 


THE POWER BEHIND 


119 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER XVIII 

THE HIGHER ENVIRONMENT 

CHAPTER XIX 

HOW TO WIN OUT 

CHAPTER XX 

TRUE SUCCESS 

CHAPTER XXI 


IN THE MAKING 


NEW THOUGHT 
CHRISTIANIZED 


“Every scribe who hath been made a disciple of 
the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is 
a householder, who bringeth out of his treasure 
things new and old.”— Matt. 13:52. 

“Old things need not be therefore true, 

O brother man, nor yet the new; 

Ah, still awhile the old thought retain, 

And yet consider it again.” 

—Arthur Hugh Clough. 


CHAPTER I 


AFFIRMATION 

Affirmation is “the final dictate of reason”; 
the fiat of the will; the yea of the soul. The 
overt act of affirmation brings latent faith to 
the birth, and strengthens it where it already 
exists. When a thing is affirmed, faith in it 
is confirmed. So great is the power of affir¬ 
mation that a man may keep on affirming a 
thing that is not true until he comes to be¬ 
lieve it. Beginning by deceiving others, he 
ends in deceiving himself, coming into that 
condition described by Paul as “believing a 
lie”; hoodwinking his own soul, and saying 
unto darkness, “Be thou my light.” 

In the teaching of Jesus, affirmation played 
an important part. He seldom reasoned; he 
affirmed; he declared. His seven “I am’s,” in 
which he discloses his real selfhood, are seven 
personal affirmations. He himself was God’s 
great affirmation. “In him was yea ”—the full 
and final affirmation of God touching things 
spiritual and eternal. 

Throughout the Christian centuries the 
3 


4 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Church has taught by affirmation. The Apos¬ 
tles’ Creed—the earliest formulation of Chris¬ 
tian doctrine—and all subsequent creeds, are 
simply a series of affirmations. To her great 
loss she has followed this method too spar¬ 
ingly. The modern cults make more of it. 
They follow Emerson’s advice, “Nerve your¬ 
self with incessant affirmatives,” and drive the 
truth home by constant repetition. And what 
is still more important, they dwell upon the 
positive rather than upon the negative side of 
things. In this they are wise; for there is no 
power in negations. Mephistopheles is rep¬ 
resented in Faust as saying, “The spirit I, 
which evermore denies”; and by denial he fain 
would reduce all things to nothingness. 

It is the affirmation which follows denial 
that gives to it its value; just as it is the 
numeral that gives value to a string of ciphers. 
It is not denial that gives to Christian Science 
its power, but affirmation—not the denial of 
sickness, but the affirmation of health; not the 
denial of sin, but the affirmation of goodness; 
not the denial of death, but the affirmation of 
life. In the degree in which it becomes nega¬ 
tive, Christian teaching becomes powerless. It 
needs positive conviction, expressed in positive 
affirmation to give it propagating power. 


AFFIRMATION 


5 


Hence it is that the dogmatic denominations 
make converts, while the undogmatic denom¬ 
inations suffer decline. Conviction produces 
conviction. The gospel runs its conquering 
course “from faith to faith,” that is, from the 
faith of one convinced soul to the faith of 
another convinced soul. If the Christianity of 
to-day would maintain its power, producing 
conviction in others, it must then, first of all, 
possess the positive note of “creative asser¬ 
tion.” It must “doubt its doubts, and believe 
its beliefs,” affirming with a new emphasis, 
born of a new experience, the things which it 
has formally professed to believe; saying to 
the world, “that which we have seen and 
heard declare we unto you.” 

In making affirmations the important thing 
to begin with is to see that they are true; for 
in the long run anything built upon falsehood 
is like a house built on the sand—it is sure 
to come to ruin. That only can endure which 
is founded upon the rock of eternal truth. 

Now, the significant thing about the affir¬ 
mation made within the circle of the modern 
cults is that they are almost exclusively self - 
affirmations. They consist of assertions of 
self-sufficiency and goodness, and present a 
new form of self-righteousness, masquerad- 


6 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


ing under the guise of a true, but wrongly 
directed philosophy. Here are some of them 
taken at random from a recent representative 
work: “I am wise;” “I am strong;” “I am 
free;” “l am pure;” “1 have all growth, 
energy, and power;” “I have overcome the 
world, the flesh and evil.” In these affirma¬ 
tions there is not a word of truth. If those 
who make them saw themselves as God sees 
them, all such self-complacent utterances 
would freeze upon their lips. What ought to 
be affirmed is not, “I am wise,” but, I am 
seeking after wisdom; not “I am strong,” but, 
I am seeking to acquire strength; not “I am 
pure,” but, I am striving after purity; not “I 
am free,” but, I am struggling after freedom; 
not “I have all power,” but, I am keeping my 
soul open to the fountain of power. A fatal 
arrest is put upon all progress when the pro¬ 
fession of attainment is put in the place of the 
avowal of a purpose to push on. 

We follow a flying goal; we strive after 
an enlarging ideal; we climb mountain steeps 
that rise higher and higher unto the eternal 
blue. Our only safe motto is that contained 
in the words, “not that I have already ob¬ 
tained, or am already made perfect, but I 
press on” (Phil. 3:12). 


AFFIRMATION 


7 


In striking contrast with the attitude of vain 
self-confidence assumed by many within the 
modern cults, is that of the humble Christian, 
who instead of boasting of attainment, bewails 
his shortcomings; instead of professing good¬ 
ness, confesses sin; instead of standing on a 
pedestal, lies low in the dust; instead of tak¬ 
ing his place by the side of the self-applauding 
Pharisee, takes it by the side of the penitent 
publican; being still old-fashioned enough to 
believe in humility as in itself a virtue, and 
as that 

“low sweet root 

From which all heavenly virtues shoot” 

One thing, however, for which we are in¬ 
debted to the modern school of thought which 
we are considering, is that it has restored to 
us the lost sense of the dignity and worth of 
human nature. It has displaced the extrava¬ 
gant self-depreciation which could lead anyone 
to say, “I am a worm, and no man” (Psa. 
22:6), with the saner view which leads us 
proudly to say, I am a man and no worm. 
But in the reaction from this morbid view of 
human nature, which prevailed until recently, 
and which led our worthy sires to speak of 
themselves as “worms of the dust,” the pen- 


8 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


dulum has swung in the opposite direction; 
and from thinking of himself less highly than 
he ought to think, man has come to think of 
himself more highly than he ought to think. 
He has even come to think that there is noth¬ 
ing in all the universe more worthy of worship 
than himself; and to adopt for his new Gloria 
in Excelsis, 

“Glory to man in the highest, 

For man is the Master of things.” 

More seemly would it be if he gave the 
place of supremacy to the Supreme, and took 
up the refrain: 

“Glory to God in the highest, 

For God is the Master of men” 

When the balance has been struck between 
undue self-depreciation and undue self-appre¬ 
ciation, and a just appraisement of conduct 
has been made, a normal man will find many 
things regarding which he has no need to be 
ashamed, and others regarding which, if he 
is wise, he will say as little as possible, and 
be glad when the hand of friendship throws 
over them the mantle of charity. 

A noteworthy example of Christian affir¬ 
mation is furnished by the declaration of 


AFFIRMATION 


9 


Paul, “I can do all things” (Phil. 4:13). 
These words have a modern sound. Suppose 
we stop him and ask: “Paul, can you do all 
things absolutely ?” “No, not all things ab¬ 
solutely, but all things within the sphere of 
moral obligation.” “How can you do them?” 
“Through Christ, who strengtheneth me.” 
“Ah, that makes all the difference. Anyone 
could do the things he is commended to do 
with such help as that, and no one can do 
them without it.” “Our sufficiency is of God.” 
The need of his help we can never outgrow. 
In him we are to trust; in him we are to 
hope; concerning him we are to make our 
supreme affirmation. Guided by the light of 
Christ’s teaching; girded by his unfailing 
power, enveloped by his everlasting love, we 
are to acknowledge to the world our measure¬ 
less indebtedness to him; and when life’s short 
course is run, and we come to stand before 
him, we are to cast our crowns at his feet, 
exclaiming, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto 
us, but unto thy great name be all the glory.” 

There are affirmations which every Chris¬ 
tian is warranted to make, and which he can¬ 
not make too frequently, too confidently, or 
too emphatically. Some of them we shall 
endeavor to indicate. 


10 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

By the grace of God I am what I am. 

Christ is made unto me wisdom, and righteous¬ 
ness, and sanctification, and redemption. 

I have in Christ all sufficiency in all things, that 
I may abound unto every good work. 

Christ is in me the hope of glory, and the be¬ 
ginning of it. 


CHAPTER II 


THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 

Christian Science refuses to acknowledge 
its dependence upon, or its indebtedness to, 
the working of the law of suggestion; New 
Thought frankly recognizes its far-reaching 
power, and works in harmony with it; Psy¬ 
chotherapy, appreciating its therapeutic value, 
reduces it to a science. That suggestion plays 
an important part in the action of mind upon 
mind does not admit of any question whatever. 
By it, more than by anything else, influence is 
exerted by one personality upon another. Sug¬ 
gestion is of three kinds: 

1. Auto-suggestion. That is, suggestion 
which the conscious mind picks up, entertains, 
makes its own, and applies. Into the thought- 
reservoir of the subjective mind there flows 
a constant stream of suggestions which are 
stored up for future use. Out of these ac¬ 
cumulations are “the issues of life and no 
one can tell at what unexpected times any one 
of them may be acted upon. Although long 
11 


12 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


forgotten they may at any time sprout up like 
buried seeds, and come to swift fruition. 

It goes without the saying that careful at¬ 
tention ought to be given to the filling of the 
mind with good suggestions. “Whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are honor¬ 
able, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report; if there 
be any virtue, and if there be any praise, 
think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). Lofty 
ideals are to be cherished; the companionship 
of noble thoughts is to be cultivated; the im¬ 
agination in its flights is to be allowed to 
alight and rest only on the bright and inspir¬ 
ing side of things; warders are to be set before 
eye-gate and ear-gate, and every unworthy 
suggestion that asks for admission turned 
back, and welcome given only to the good. 
The guests received will determine the nature 
of the thought-life, and upon the thought-life 
more than anything else human well-being 
depends. The state of a man’s soul has more 
to do with his highest welfare than the state 
of his surroundings. 

To man has been given the power of con¬ 
trolling his thoughts. The will is the rudder 
of the mind, and can steer its thoughts in any 


THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 13 


direction the captain may choose, and keep 
them from being deflected from their proper 
course by any cross current of suggestion. It 
can even reverse them, and turn them in an 
entirely new direction. This is the signifi¬ 
cance of the act of repentance. Primarily it 
is a change of thought, and after that a 
change of feeling and of action. 

Suggestion is something that may or may 
not be acted upon. There is nothing compul¬ 
sory about it. Evil suggestions are to be 
resisted, good suggestions are to be accepted. 
It was a wise remark of an old monk that 
we cannot hinder a bird from alighting upon 
our head, but we can hinder it from building 
its nest in our hair. We can refuse to read 
an unclean book, or look upon an unclean 
picture, lest their impure suggestions kindle 
the fires of passion. On the other hand, we 
can peruse the loftiest literature, and lay open 
our minds to the refining influence of the 
noblest works of art. By the thoughts we 
harbor we can convert our hearts into a stye 
or into a temple. Although we may not be 
responsible for the suggestions that come to 
us, we are responsible for the manner in which 
we deal with them, and for the influence which 
we allow them to have upon us. Once given 


14 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


heart-room they control us, for “As a man 
thinketh in his heart, so is he”; that is to say, 
as a man habitually thinks, so will his life be 
shaped. Vagrant, passing thoughts have a 
passing influence, but the general trend of 
thought makes a permanent impression. The 
procession of thoughts that march through 
the mind cut deep tracks in the gray matter 
of the brain, and tracks no less deep in the 
soul, and in the character. 

It is said that a man is known by the com¬ 
pany he keeps; and this is especially true re¬ 
garding the company he entertains within the 
secret chambers of his soul. But who knows 
what is going on within any man’s breast, save 
God, and the man himself? And yet it is 
in this inner place that a man’s true life is 
lived; and the man that God knows him to be 
may be very different from the man that his 
closest friends imagine him to be. A man’s 
dreams form an important part of his real 
life, and these are complexioned by his 
thoughts. What a man thinks in his waking 
hours he dreams in his sleeping hours, when 
the mixed contents of his subconscious mind 
rise to the surface. It is this reflection that 
has led some one to say that “a man is no 
better than what he is when in the dark,” 


THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 15 


Then he is off guard and lets himself down, 
giving the reins to his thoughts, and allowing 
them to wander at their own sweet will. To 
curb them, and set them in order, demands 
strenuous effort. As it is always easier to 
creep than to walk, to float than to swim, it 
needs the constant up-pushing power of a 
trained and vigorous will to keep the soul 
moving toward the higher altitudes of the 
spiritual realm, where the good angels of pure 
thoughts continually dwell. 

2. Suggestion by others, or suggestion from 
without. Every man is acted upon by outside 
influences—both good and bad. Seeds of sug¬ 
gestion of all kinds are being constantly 
dropped into his soul, many of them to lie 
dormant for a time, but ultimately to ger¬ 
minate, and bring forth fruit. It is chiefly 
through suggestion that men influence one 
another. The modern art of advertising is 
founded upon the operation of this law—its 
skillfully devised suggestions being the stimuli 
to which we respond. Venders of patent med¬ 
icines count upon it for results. Physicians 
are beginning to appreciate its practical im¬ 
portance. They know the value of a change of 
suggestion in producing mental reactions, and 
they know what wonders can be wrought by 


16 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


a change of place and associations. They are 
discovering that the way to get people well, 
and keep them well, is to suggest health. A 
person may be fascinated with the idea of 
sickness until it becomes fixed in his mind 
and turns auto-suggestion into a disease-breed¬ 
ing influence. In such a case the only remedy 
is the displacement of the mischief-making 
thought with something better. Upon this 
principle the mother acts when she kisses the 
hurt finger of her child to make it well. She 
drives out the feeling of pain by the expulsive 
power of a new suggestion. 

Sometimes suggestion comes through our 
social sympathies, as in the contagious influ¬ 
ence of a crowd, when the individual is swept 
along upon the tide of a popular sentiment. 
This explains panics; it also explains religious 
revivals. An amusing illustration of the same 
law of social influence is seen when, in a 
public assembly, yawning and coughing are 
produced by suggestion. 

Suggestions come also out of the unseen, 
from agencies which we cannot trace. Many 
of them proceed from malign powers. All we 
can say of them is what the Master said of the 
tares with which a farmer’s field was sown: 
“An enemy hath done this.” Evil suggestions 


THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 17 


are the main source of temptation. They fall 
upon the soul like sparks upon a gunpowder 
mine. Jesus could say, “The prince of this 
world cometh, and hath nothing in me”—that 
is, nothing upon which he can work. In most 
of us he finds abundance of combustible ma¬ 
terial. “Every man is tempted,” says James, 
“when he is drawn away of his own lusts, and 
enticed.” In this case he becomes a devil to 
himself. In other instances temptation is 
from without. Against it the whole soul may 
revolt, hurling it back into the darkness from 
whence it came. When thus repudiated it in¬ 
volves no responsibility whatsoever. Only 
when accepted and obeyed does it become one's 
own. 

Not only do we receive suggestions, we give 
them—not by speech alone, but by the direct 
projection of our thoughts into other minds. 
Whether as telepathy, thought-transference, 
absent treatment, or prayer, or under any 
other mode, there is a subtle, mysterious 
power which cannot be explained upon any 
other ground than the inflowing of personal¬ 
ity into personality; and of all forms of social 
influence this undoubtedly constitutes the 
crown. 

3. Divine suggestion. This is the most 


18 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


powerful of all; and it is one which is fre¬ 
quently overlooked. God seeks to keep him¬ 
self in unbroken connection with man. He 
has given to them his word, which is a book 
of suggestions. In it are expressed the won¬ 
derful thoughts by which he seeks to influ¬ 
ence their hearts and lives. These thoughts 
are given in hints, and partial revealings, “here 
a little, and there much.” But he has other 
ways of reaching them than through the word. 
Conscience is his voice within the soul—the 
mouth of the moral nature through which he 
speaks. The Holy Spirit is his “inner voice,” 
whose whisperings are directed with a per¬ 
sonal intent to all. In these three separate 
ways God is suggesting his thoughts to us that 
he may influence us for good. When he “heal- 
eth the broken in heart” it is by suggesting to 
them comforting thoughts; when he answers 
prayer for guidance, it is by giving sugges¬ 
tions of what we ought to do; when he re¬ 
deems a soul, it is through the power of some 
new revelation. Through truth he leads to 
life. How important, then, is it to keep the 
mind open to his suggestions, ever bending an 
attentive ear, and saying, “Speak, Lord, for 
thy servant heareth.” “To-day, if you hear 
his voice, harden not your heart.” 


THE LAW OF SUGGESTION 19 


Within the world at large the same law 
rules. Before its life can be changed its 
thought must be changed. Very little is ever 
settled by the battle of arms, more is settled 
afterward by the battle of ideas. Ideas rule 
the world. To get the world to change its 
mind, to get it to see things as He sees them, 
is the end of all God's effort. For not until 
the world accepts his suggestions about things 
and thinks his thoughts after him, will all be 
right with it. His thoughts accepted will make 
Godlike men, and Godlike men will make a 
Godlike world. 

AFFIRMATIONS. 

I will turn away mine eyes from beholding 
vanity. 

I will welcome within the home of my heart 
only thoughts that are good. 

I will be guided and governed by what God 
suggests more than by what man suggests. 

I will open my heart to God as the earth opens 
her bosom to the sun. 




CHAPTER III 


SALVATION BY DISPLACEMENT 

It is a principle in physics that two bodies 
cannot occupy the same space at the same 
time. The one will displace the other. A ship 
floating in still seas will displace a volume of 
water exactly equal to its own weight. The 
same principle holds good in the spiritual 
world. No one can follow, at the same time, 
two opposing forces; the one will crowd the 
other out. The way to overcome the evil 
tendencies of our nature is by following the 
injunction, “Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall 
not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). 
Those who “walk by the Spirit,” being led by 
his promptings, supported by his power, gov¬ 
erned by his will, have no relish for the things 
of the fleshly life. They live in a high region 
where the clamorous demands of the lower 
nature if heard are unheeded. There are 
better things to claim their attention; there 
are more satisfactory things to strive after. 
Possession of the higher leaves no room for 
21 


22 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


the lower; desire for the higher ouenches de¬ 
sire for the lower. 

At this point New Thought has rendered 
valuable service by showing that every evil, 
physical and spiritual, is to be overcome, not 
so much by direct resistance as by offering 
other considerations to it; and that every evil 
has its remedy, just as every poison has its 
antidote. It has taught the expulsive power of 
a new idea, and has kept reiterating—Think 
good thoughts and there will be no room in 
the heart for bad ones; let in the light, and 
the light will expel the darkness. Or, as John 
Newton put it long ago, “Fill the bushel with 
wheat, and you may defy the devil to fill it 
with tares.” 

The evangelist Moody, in his practical way, 
was accustomed to illustrate this truth by 
lifting a glass from the table and saying, 
“This glass is full of air, which I cannot 
clutch and draw out.” Then taking a pitcher 
of water and filling the glass he would say, 
“Now it is all out, for something else is in 
its place.” 

A classical illustration of this truth is found 
in the story taken from Greek mythology 
which tells of the very different ways in 
which two sets of voyagers sought to over- 


SALVATION BY DISPLACEMENT 23 


come the seductive charms ot the Sirens. 
When Odysseus, on his return from Troy, 
passed the island of these treacherous 
nymphs, knowing that all who stopped to 
listen to their enchanting strains would be 
seized with an unconquerable desire to leap 
overboard and join them, he filled the ears 
of all on board with wax. But when the 
Argonauts sailed near the abode of the Si¬ 
rens, and were being powerfully affected by 
their enchanting strains, Orpheus, perceiving 
their danger, took up his magic lyre and so 
completely absorbed their attention that they 
passed the island in safety. This latter way 
is the more effective in breaking the spell 
of the tempter. It makes one as imperious 
to evil influence as the ancient saint of whom 
it was said that the fires of hell could not 
burn him, because his soul was full of 
heaven. 

When, however, we come to the develop¬ 
ment of this idea of salvation by displace¬ 
ment, there is often in New Thought litera¬ 
ture much haziness and confusion of thought 
touching the nature of this displacement and 
the way in which it takes place. Man is 
represented as having a divided self; or, 
rather, two separate selves—one the ordinary, 


24 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


limited self with which he has to live from 
day to day, the other a shadowy subliminal 
self, described as “the Spiritual Self, which 
is one with God.” For this splitting of self, 
psychology gives no warrant whatsoever. 
Man is one; albeit, his nature has two sides, 
an upper and under, and between them there 
is constant conflict. The duality of which he 
is conscious when he speaks of his worse and 
better self is moral, not metaphysical, and 
is simply an expression of the difference be¬ 
tween the actual and the ideal self; the self 
he is, and the self he ought to be. 

At many points New Thought and Chris¬ 
tian thought meet; here they show the widest 
line of cleavage. The “Higher Self” which 
New Thought would substitute for the lower 
one is not a higher moral self, but a self 
possessing a higher grade of power. Besides, 
it is already in possession; and any failure 
on the part of anyone to acquire for himself 
the desirable things of life is attributed to 
the fact that he has not used it. To the 
man worsted in life’s fight it comes saying, 
You have resident within you all the forces 
that you need for victory. Your diviner self 
which is without weakness or limitation waits 
for recognition, and if you are only true to 


SALVATION BY DISPLACEMENT 25 


it, and live it out, you will express in your¬ 
self the divine perfections. And so the af¬ 
firmation is actually made, “I am an expres¬ 
sion of the Divine Life,” while the puny, 
imperfect mortal who makes it knows full 
well that he is often the expression of some¬ 
thing very different. As against this doctrine 
of egotheism Christianity says, The power you 
need is within your reach, and all you have 
to do is to open your hearts and it will flow 
in. “Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye 
shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto 
you.” First receive the divine life, then 
express it; first become partakers of the 
divine moral nature, and then manifest the 
divine moral character; first put off the old 
man, and then put on the new; first get a 
better self, and then be true to it; first get a 
new heart, and then will come the new life; 
first make the tree good, and the fruit will be 
good. From the need of regeneration Chris¬ 
tianity leaves no way of escape. 

In the Christian scheme of things the sub¬ 
stitution of Christ for self is the great dis¬ 
placement, which forms the central thing in 
Christian experience. Of this Paul speaks 
in the mystical words: “I have been crucified 
with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, 


26 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


but Christ liveth in me.” (Gal. 2:20.) Christ 
becomes to the Christian a new life-center; 
the old self life which is crucified with him 
unto death dies, and is buried in his grave, 
and in its place there is a new center of self¬ 
hood. Christ lives within, the animating prin¬ 
ciple of all the life’s activities. By the re¬ 
inforcement of his presence he enables a man 
to live above himself, and to attain a higher, 
larger, richer life than could have been pos¬ 
sible had he not taken possession of him. 
Into his soul comes fulness of power, which 
works out in every direction; affecting every¬ 
thing within the circle of human interests; 
making the whole life an incarnation of 
Christ’s spirit, a repetition of his ministry to 
men; thus bringing it into harmonious union 
with the Infinite in the realization of those 
high ends which it was predestined to serve. 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

The bad I replace with the good. 

Divine will I substitute for self-will. 

Not by self-emptying, but by divine infilling 
do I attain the perfect life. 

Christ in me the soul of my soul is the end of 
weakness and strife, the beginning of strength and 
peace. 


CHAPTER IV 

WHAT IS MAN? 

The time was when religious interest cen¬ 
tered in the study of God, today it centers 
in the study of man. In due time the pendu¬ 
lum will swing back again. Meanwhile it is 
wise to follow the trend of the times, and 
while not ignoring the first question of re¬ 
ligion, “What is God ?” give due consideration 
to the second—“What is man?” 

It is with the second question of religion 
that New Thought is mainly concerned. It 
is strong on anthropology, and weak on the¬ 
ology; and hence has more to say about man 
than about God. In turning the thought of 
man to himself it has given an impetus to the 
study of psychology—the science of the soul. 
It believes in the right of the soul to be heard; 
and in the validity of its testimony. In the 
contents of consciousness it finds the basis 
of all knowledge; and rightly so. It has 
evolved an anthropology of its own, of which 
27 


28 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


the following are some of the leading char¬ 
acteristics : 

1. It has given emphasis to the idea that 
man is a spirit; that he has a body, but that 
his body is not him, and his. In this dual 
nature the spirit has the body for a habita¬ 
tion, and organ of expression; the body has 
the spirit for its animating principle. Man is 
thus compounded of clay and fire. He has 
his feet on the earth, and his head among the 
stars. His physical body connects him with 
the cosmic order, his spiritual nature con¬ 
nects him with the universal kingdom of the 
spirit. 

2. That man is a person—not a thing; that 
what we call the awakening of consciousness 
is the awakening to the fact of personality. 
When man comes to himself he sees himself 
to be a separate entity, a separate being. Nor 
does this consciousness of personal existence 
ever leave him. It is the one permanent thing 
in the midst of the fluctuating experience of 
thought and feeling. Through all the changes 
that may come, the conviction abides that “I 
am I.” A man can no more get away from 
himself than he can jump over his own 
shadow. 

Any scheme of thought dealing with the 


WHAT IS MAN? 


29 


relation of the human to the divine which 
allows the sense of personality to be obscured, 
by representing the finite as melting into the 
infinite, practically parts company with Chris¬ 
tianity, which always represents the union of 
man and God as the union of two distinct and 
mutually related personalities; and makes per¬ 
sonality finite and infinite, the rock upon 
which the temple of truth is built. 

3. That man has locked up within him un¬ 
dreamed of powers which he can tap, and call 
into exercise. This fact has come to many 
with all the freshness and force of a new 
discovery, and has given them the vision of 
new possibilities in their lives. In this aspect 
of it the New Thought movement is a whole¬ 
some reaction from the old-time Calvinism, 
which left man bound hand and foot by a 
divine decree, or reduced him to a mere pup¬ 
pet which moved only if an Almighty hand 
pulled the strings. 

It is now coming to be generally accepted 
that man is not helpless in the sense that he 
can do nothing for himself. He can do more 
than the wildest flight of fancy ever imagined. 
But he cannot do everything. He is finite 
and limited. His life is rooted in a sense of 
dependence upon a higher power. His union 


30 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


with that power, and his cooperation with it, 
are his own voluntary acts, and by them his 
true life on earth is realized. 

4. That eternal progress is the law of life; 
that to man belongs the glory of going on; 
not merely in the sense of continuing to exist, 
but also in the sense of continuing to make 
progress. He can now and here enter upon 
a course of everlasting life, which will con¬ 
tinue in unknown worlds, and through ages 
yet to come. Upon his progress no limit can 
be placed. 

The same is true of the race. “Through 
the ages an increasing purpose runs.” Men 
do not die like flies in summer, but are linked 
one to another in an endless chain. One gen¬ 
eration takes up its march where another 
stops; so that despite its ebbing tides, and its 
fearful collapses, the general movement of 
civilization is forever onward. 

5. That man is the child of God . And so 
in a true sense he is. But there is a scale of 
sonship. Natural sonship comes first, in har¬ 
mony with the law expressed in the words, 
“that is not first which is spiritual, but that 
which is natural; then that which is spiritual.” 
(I Cor. 15 :46.) Man is God’s child by nature. 
He possesses his inbreathed life; he has been 


WHAT IS MAN? 


31 


made in his image. To his high lineage he 
has not been true; he has belied his divine 
sonship, living as a prodigal, and often be¬ 
coming an out and out child of the devil; 
but his real, original relationship is with 
God; and nothing can ever sever the vital 
bond which unites him with the Father. When 
he returns from his wanderings he comes 
back to the condition of true sonship, from 
which he himself voluntarily departed. But 
he has to come by the lowly way of penitence 
and forgiveness before there is killed for him 
the fatted calf, and all the rights and priv¬ 
ileges of the fathers house are restored to 
him. 

Natural sonship belongs to every man with¬ 
out his seeking, spiritual sonship is volun¬ 
tarily chosen; natural sonship belongs to the 
once-born, spiritual sonship to the twice-born; 
natural sonship is implied in the birth after 
the flesh, spiritual sonship in the birth after 
the spirit. Nothing can ever alter the fact 
that every man is God’s offspring; and noth¬ 
ing can ever alter the fact that before he can 
become God’s child, in the New Testament 
acceptation of the term, he must pass from 
natural to spiritual sonship, and live in filial 
relation to God. Upon this high plane the 



32 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Apostle John puts the experience of divine 
sonship, when he says, “As many as received 
him”—that is, as many as received Christ into 
their hearts and lives—“to them gave he the 
right to become the children of God, even to 
them that believe on his name; who were born 
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but 
of God.” (John 1:12, 13.) 

Failing to see this distinction between nat¬ 
ural and spiritual sonship, New Thought 
makes over to all men the heritage which be¬ 
longs to God’s spiritual children, promising 
freely, without regard to moral meetness, the 
blessings which are for the regenerated alone. 
And rushing in where angels would fear to 
tread it does not even hesitate to apply to all 
men such terms as “I in Thee, and Thou in 
me,” which are used exclusively to express 
the union of Christ with the Father, and of 
the believer with Christ. Against God’s 
natural children doors are barred which are 
open to his spiritual children. The key to 
the possession of power and privilege is a new 
heart. For as the Master has said, “Except 
ye be born anew ye cannot see the kingdom 
of God.” (John 3:3.) 


WHAT IS MAN? 


33 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I am a spirit, clothed for a season in mortal 
flesh. 

I am heir of all the ages past, and of all the 
ages yet to come. 

I am living under the law of eternal progress, 
and have all eternity in which to grow. 

I am a child of God, made in his image and 
destined to dwell with him in everlasting felicity. 


CHAPTER V 


INTROSPECTION 

The majority of people give too much 
thought to themselves. They are too intro¬ 
spective, too self-conscious. They brood over 
their little aches and ailments; they diagnose 
their mental and physical symptoms; they 
watch their changing moods; and keep a close 
inspection generally over the operations of 
their souls. To the accentuation of this ten¬ 
dency the New Thought movement, among 
others, contributes. 

A man may be too much with himself. He 
may live too much within himself. From that 
mental attitude it is but a short step to his 
living too much to himself. The highest life 
is self-forgetting. Perfect health is uncon¬ 
scious of itself. When undue attention is 
given to the working of any particular organ 
of the body the disease that is dreaded is 
often produced. To enjoy the fulness of life, 
and the zest of living, one must give himself 
with abandon to some noble task, or to some 
great human interest; forgetting himself in 
his work, or in his thought for others, and 
35 


36 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


fighting his battle with such heat of blood as 
to become oblivious to any minor wound he 
may receive. The less he thinks of himself, 
and considers his own feelings, the more apt 
is he to succeed. 

There is, however, a wise as well as an 
unwise introspection. Every man ought to 
examine himself, that he may know himself. 
Of all objects in the universe, there is none 
of deeper interest to a man than himself; and 
of all the things that are happening in his 
life, those that are going on beneath the sur¬ 
face are the most momentous. What he 
thinks, and feels, and wills, are the things 
of paramount importance. But just as a 
virtue if pushed too far may become a fault, 
introspection unduly indulged in may become 
a weakness. There is a morbid psychology, 
and much of the nervous depression and phys¬ 
ical disturbance of today are caused by turn¬ 
ing the mind too much upon itself, and making 
its operations the subject of too minute and 
prolonged investigation. 

From the spiritual point of view the inward 
look is disconcerting. What a man finds 
when he looks within his own heart is fitted 
to strip from him every shred of self-com¬ 
placency. In himself he can find no satisfac- 


INTROSPECTION 


37 


tion. As well may he think of looking into 
a coal pit to see the sun as of looking into 
his heart to find that which will bring bright¬ 
ness and comfort. Gloss it over as we may, 
the ugly fact which confronts a man as he 
looks his soul squarely and honestly in the 
face is his own sinfulness. In the holiest 
hearts the sense of sin is often most keenly 
felt, and the best of men are often the readi¬ 
est to say with Henry Ware:— 

“It is not what my hands have done 
That weighs my spirit down, 

And casts a shadow o’er the sun 
And over earth a frown. 

It is not any heinous guilt, 

Or vice by man abhorred; 

For fair the fame that I have built, 

A fair life’s just reward— 

And men would wonder if they knew 
How sad I feel, with sins so few. 

Alas, they only see in part, 

When thus they judge the whole; 

They cannot look upon the heart; 

They cannot read the soul. 

But I survey myself within, 

And mournfully I feel 
How deep the principle of sin 
Its roots may there conceal 
And spread its poison through the frame 
Without a deed that man can blame.” 


38 NEW; THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 

When the hour of self-revelation comes 
to a soul, and he begins to see himself as God 
sees him, and as he really is, in the light of 
the Infinite Purity, he veils his face, exclaim¬ 
ing, “O wretched man that I am, who shall 
deliver me?” 

It is a striking fact that Christian teaching 
does not encourage the habit of introvision, 
which has prevailed so extensively among the 
religions of the East. The rather has it 
sought to lead men to turn with averted face 
from the distressing vision of their inner mor¬ 
tal selves, and hail the mighty deliverer who 
has come to their relief. Its motto is, “Look¬ 
ing unto Jesus” (Heb. 12:2); that is, look¬ 
ing off from everything else, and fixing the 
gaze of the soul upon Him alone. The Old 
Testament exhortation, “Look unto me, and be 
ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 
25:42), has for its New Testament equiva¬ 
lent, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). 
To him we are to look with eager interest 
and undivided attention until the vision splen¬ 
did fills the whole horizon of the soul. 

In his deepest need man is forced to look 
without. He cannot “plunge into himself and 
rise redeemed.” He cannot heal his wounds 


INTROSPECTION 


39 


by looking at them; he cannot better himself 
by brooding over his sins. As the serpent- 
bitten Hebrews were cured by looking to the 
serpent of brass, the sin-stricken soul is saved 
by looking to the uplifted, crucified Christ. 
The power of faith is in its object. To ex¬ 
pect salvation without fixing the mind upon 
him who is mighty to save is vain; for, as Dr. 
Wm. C. Sadler has well said, “Eternity is not 
long enough to bring you what you desire, 
unless you seek it where it is to be found.” 

Here we touch the distinction between the 
subjective and the objective sides of religion. 
These are not exclusive, the one of the other. 
From the objective fact comes the subjective 
experience; from what is seen comes what is 
felt. The mystical is grounded in the external ; 
faith is generated by an outward revelation. 
The experience of our salvation is from the 
Christ within us, but its ground is in the 
Christ without us. In his universal relations 
Christ is “the true light which lighteth every 
man coming into the world.” But it is by 
faith in the life that he lived and the death 
he died that his love becomes enthroned in 
our hearts, and his spirit wrought out in our 
lives. 

To maintain the balance between the sub- 


40 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


jective and the objective sides of truth should 
be the object of our constant endeavor. We 
are to be much on the inside, but not dwell 
there. We are to think much of ourselves, 
but are not to forget God, or our brother 
man. In short, we are to live a well-rounded 
life, in which the inner and the outer things 
shall blend into one harmonious whole. 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I will look out' oftener than I look in. 

I will examine myself in the light of God’s most 
holy word. 

I will scrutinize my motives, and will not allow 
my self-complacency to hoodwink my judgment. 

I will turn from the vision of myself to the vision 
of the merciful, redeeming Christ. 


CHAPTER VI 


FEAR AND ITS ANTIDOTES 

Fear is one of the most destructive forces 
in the world. It demoralizes the strongest 
natures, and casts a blight upon life , s fairest 
joys. It is one of the most fruitful causes 
of disease. A sudden shock of fear will throw 
the whole bodily system out of order. It will 
change the secretions of the body; it will turn 
the milk of a nursing mother into poison. 

For the most part fear is unreasonable. It 
is connected with the mysterious and the un¬ 
known, and usually springs from ignorance. 
We fear what we do not know, not merely 
for what it is, but for what it may portend. 

“Imagination frames events unknown 
In wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin, 

And what it fears creates” 

—Hannah More. 

Savage tribes live in constant fear. They 
people the unseen world around them with 
evil powers whom they seek to propitiate. 
Science has dispelled many of our fears. It 

41 


42 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 

has come to us when we were like children 
crying in the night, and by lighting the lamp 
of knowledge has shown us there is nothing 
in the dark to harm us. Yet fear persists 
in returning. We fondly think that we have 
banished it, having reasoned ourselves out of 
it by convincing ourselves of its utter ground¬ 
lessness, when lo, it suddenly looms up before 
us in the shape of some awful impending 
calamity. We have a vague apprehension 
that something direful is about to happen. 
What it is we cannot tell; nor can we give 
a reason for our feeling regarding it. But 
there it is, shadowing life, and nailing our 
feet to the ground. 

Emancipation from the thraldom of fear is 
one part of Christ’s salvation. We ascribe 
to modern civilization what we ought to as¬ 
cribe to Him. He has taken from the world 
the fear of the unseen future which rested 
upon it like a pall. Wherever his influence 
has gone fear has vanished. The world has 
become a more comfortable place to live in 
because the specter of fear has been destroyed 
by the brightness of his coming. 

In the present day there is a great deal of 
shallow teaching regarding the overcoming of 
fear. We are admonished not to fear, and to 


FEAR AND ITS ANTIDOTES 43 


deny the existence of anything that may prove 
a ground for fear. And so we go on our 
way, like a boy passing through a dark wood, 
whistling to keep his courage up. All of 
which is very foolish. For the question will 
arise, Why should we not fear? Through the 
Bible there runs, like a thread of gold, the 
oft-repeated refrain, “Fear not,” but along 
with it there is always given some valid 
reason why we should not fear. Take three 
typical instances; and first, take the blessed 
promise, “Fear not, for I am with thee; be 
not dismayed, for I am thy God, I will 
strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee with 
the right hand of my righteousness.” (Isa. 
41:10.) Here we have a rational ground for 
the absence of fear. However keenly we may 
feel the evil that presses upon us we have no 
reason to fear it with God at our side to 
strengthen and uphold us. How different this 
from the inane “Fear nots,” which have noth¬ 
ing behind them. Or, take the words, “Fear 
not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy ex¬ 
ceeding great reward.” (Gen. 15:1.) With 
God for our shield we have an impregnable 
defence. His presence is between us and all 
possible harm. With him as our unseen pro¬ 
tector we are as safe as a butterfly under 


44 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


a glass case when a sparrow darts upon it, 
and cannot reach it. With God surround¬ 
ing us fear is baseless. Take also the words, 
“Fear not, I have redeemed thee, and called 
thee by name; thou art mine.” (Isa. 43:1.) 
Here we have three reasons for the absence 
of fear—the experience of God’s past deliv¬ 
erances, the assurance of his perfect knowl¬ 
edge of us and our affairs, and the acknowl¬ 
edgment of his creative responsibility. He 
pledges himself to support us in every trial, 
or bring us through it. 

Fear will not depart at our bidding, but let 
us face every evil that threatens us, looking 
to God as our helper, our protector, and our 
deliverer, and it will melt away into thin air. 

In summing up, we point out the three 
great antidotes to fear: 

1. Knowledge. Many fears vanish when 
we examine into that which produced them. 
The story is told of a farmer walking along 
the road one misty morning, when approach¬ 
ing him was a terrible monster whose appear¬ 
ance froze his heart with terror. When he 
came up to it, what was his astonishment to 
find that it was his own brother, whom the 
morning mist had magnified and distorted. 
Many of our fears are just as needless as that. 


FEAR AND ITS ANTIDOTES 45 


When we come up to the thing that created 
them we smile and pass on. Often the fear 
turns out to be a blessing in disguise. The 
disciples feared as they entered the cloud on 
the mount of transfiguration, but when once 
folded within it, with their glorified Lord, their 
fears were gone. So it is with life’s trials. 
We see them approach us as lowering, threat¬ 
ening clouds, and the warm currents of life 
within us are congealed; but when they really 
come, we are sustained by some unseen power, 
and when they pass and we come to see that 
the things we dreaded turn out to be bless¬ 
ings unspeakable, we are ashamed that we 
should have harbored fear in our hearts for 
a single moment. Afterward, we may, like the 
disciples on the mount, speak of that moment 
of temporary eclipse as the most transcen¬ 
dency glorious experience in our lives. 

“The blessed clouds,” exclaimed a wise old 
lady, “why should we fear them? What 
would we do without them? There is rain 
in them.” 

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take! 

The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and will break 
In blessings on your head.” 


46 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


2. Love. “There is no fear in love, but 
perfect love casteth out fear” (I John 4:18). 
When love is in the heart there is no room 
for fear. Love and fear are antagonistic; 
they are mutually exclusive; when the one is 
in the other is out. 

Fill the world with love and you will banish 
fear. When men come to love one another 
they will cease to fear one another. When 
men come to love God they will cease to fear 
him. “He that feareth,” says John, “is not 
made perfect in love.” When love has perfect 
possession of any one fear will go. 

3. Faith. This is fear's chief antidote. 
We might safely say that all fear is rooted 
in a distrust of God and his good providence. 
If we believe that the rule of the world is 
not divided between God and the devil, that 
this is God's world, and that he rules over it 
alone, what have we to fear whatever betide 
us? The future is safe because it is in his 
hands. Even death itself we will not dread 
when we remember that the gentle Lord of 
Love, in whom we trust, is king of the unseen 
realm. The fear of death, which casts its 
dark and chilly shadow over life’s sunniest 
hours, Christ has dispelled. He partook of 
our common humanity “that through death 


FEAR AND ITS ANTIDOTES 4 7 


he might bring to naught him that had the 
power of death, that is the devil, and deliver 
all who through fear of death were all their 
lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14, 15). 
The changed attitude of the world in refer¬ 
ence to death is due to Him. Because of 
what he has told us we no longer dread 
death, although we may still dread dying. 
Looking beyond those shores of time we can 
say: 

“I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air; 

I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care. 

And so beside the Silent Sea 
I wait the muffled oar; 

No harm from Him can come to me 
On ocean or on shore.” 

It is the distinctive mission of the Church of 
Christ to banish fear. She is to rebuke it; 
battle against it; exterminate it. Those who 
belong to Christ’s Church are to show that 
God hath not given them the “spirit of fear; 
but of power, and of love, and of a sound 
mind” (II Tim. 1:7). There is only one thing 
they are to fear, and that is sin. The man 
who does not fear sin is a fool. He is like 


48 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


a child who is afraid of shadows, but not of 
realities; of ghosts, but not of fire. But 
nothing else in all God's universe has the 
trusting soul reason to fear. And that fear 
also is taken away when a penitent spirit 
nestles in the bosom of Infinite and Eternal 
Mercy. 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I will fear no evil, for God is with me. 

I will not fear the evil that I feel. 

I will banish from me the fear of fear. 

I will put God between me and every evil. 


CHAPTER VII 

THE FOLLY OF WORRY 

The folly of worry is seen in this, that it 
does not keep us out of trouble, and it in¬ 
creases the weight of those troubles which 
we have to bear. It alters nothing, and un¬ 
fits us to meet the trials and annoyances 
which are inevitable. It is one of the things 
which all deplore,- and which few have the 
temerity to attempt to justify. 

A Christian has no business to get within 
“the vicious worry circle,” much less to stay 
in it. He has no business to magnify trifles, 
and brood over imaginary evils. When his 
face is seamed with “low-thoughted care”; 
when corrosive anxieties eat away his happi¬ 
ness, he is belying his Christian profession. 
Trace his worry to its source and it will be 
found to spring from a sinful distrust of 
God and of his loving Providence. 

Among the things which Jesus gives to 
those who come to him, and open themselves 
to his influence, is freedom from worry. He 
49 


50 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


imparts a sweet serenity of spirit which noth¬ 
ing can disturb; a serenity unruffled by sur¬ 
face storms, being “too deep for sound or 
foam,” and unclouded by the dread of any¬ 
thing awful to come. When he said to his 
followers, “My peace I leave with you; my 
peace I give unto you; let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be fearful,” Gethsem- 
ane was only about an hour distant. He 
saw the angry storm approaching which was 
soon to overwhelm him, yet he remained un¬ 
perturbed. Never for a moment did he lose 
his poise, or suffer his spirit to be moved. 
He was master of himself, the victor and not 
the victim of his circumstances. His self¬ 
conquest was complete. The battle he then 
won he won for us, so as to communicate to 
us something of his own triumphant calm 
when facing the agonizing crises of life. 

The sublime tranquillity of Jesus came from 
his quiet trustfulness of God touching the 
future. No shadow of doubt ever fell upon 
his soul with regard to the Father’s love and 
care, or with regard to the final outworking 
of the Father’s purpose in the world. He 
had unshakable faith in the providence of 
God in his own life, in the success of his 
mission, and in the establishment of God’s 


THE FOLLY OF WORRY 


51 


kingdom on earth. He faced the future with¬ 
out fear because sustained by faith. The 
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks 
of him as “the captain” (or leader) “of our 
faith” (12:2). He walked the way of faith 
before us to draw us after him, by bringing 
to bear upon us the contagion of his own 
heroic leadership. Following him we are 
freed from inward disquietude, and are en¬ 
abled to live care-free lives. We are sure of 
the future when we are sure of Him. 

There is perhaps no greater test of faith 
than that which comes from the sense of in¬ 
security in connection with mundane affairs. 
While this sense of insecurity has never been 
altogether absent from life, it perhaps has 
never been felt more keenly than in this in¬ 
dustrial age. The economic disturbance is 
frightful. The air is filled with impalpable 
apprehensions. Business men do not know 
where they are at, or where to turn, for at 
any moment a mine may be sprung beneath 
their feet. Workingmen are in constant 
dread of being cast out upon the rubbish 
heap. If for any reason they are jolted off 
the labor wagon, they find increased difficulty 
in getting on again. The passing of the dead 
line of fifty, and the consequent closing, one 


52 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


by one, of the doors of opportunity, fills them 
with dismay. All alike are victims of a 
vicious system, and are involved in the in¬ 
security which it breeds. To escape from it 
altogether is impossible. 

In the time of Jesus life was much less 
complex than it is today. Many of the per¬ 
plexing problems which now confront us were 
then unknown. The life of Jesus itself was 
of the simplest. He went through the world 
empty-handed, never feeling the necessity of 
accumulating more than was needed from 
day to day. He was entirely free from do¬ 
mestic and business responsibilities. The 
petty anxieties which fill some lives to the 
brim were absent from his experience. Be¬ 
cause of his immunity from these things 
many have difficulty in seeing how he can be 
for us a perfect example; but we have to 
remember that it is the spirit of his life 
rather than its outward form that we are 
called upon to copy. What we are to imitate 
above all is his faith—which was the most 
dominant quality, and the most powerful for¬ 
mative force in his life. 

We have to take his teachings in the same 
broad way, following them in the spirit 
rather than in the letter. Take, for instance, 


THE FOLLY OF WORRY 


53 


the rule of action which he lays down in the 
words, “Take no thought for the morrow.” 
It is not to be taken literally. It does not 
forbid the exercise of forethought, but of 
anxious worrying thought. It simply means, 
Do not borrow trouble; do not cross the 
bridge before you come to it; trust and wait, 
leave the future with God; take material 
things for granted, and go on to the pursuit 
of higher things. This thought he expands in 
the words, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness, and all these things 
shall be added unto you.” 

“Leave God to order all thy ways, 

And hope in him whate’er betide; 

Thou’lt find him in the evil days 
Of all-sufficient strength and guide. 

Who trusts in God’s unchanging love 
Builds on the rock that naught can move.” 

It is this sense of the Father’s foreseeing 
love which “quiets the restless pulse of care,” 
and takes out of life all fret and worry. 
“They that trust in the Lord are as mount 
Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth 
forever” (Psalm 125:1). 


54 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I will pitch my tent upon the heights above the 
cloud line of worry. 

I will trust the unknown for the known. 

When the journals are heated I will pause until 
they cool. 

I will cast all my care upon Him who careth 
for me. 

Under the wing of the Almighty my fluttered soul 
will quietly rest in the time of trouble. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE UPWARD LOOK 

Never perhaps was there greater need 
than at present for cultivating the upward 
look. If the world has become more at¬ 
tractive than it ever was, it is not one whit 
more satisfying or more certain. The help 
and comfort which man needs in the hour of 
his weakness and sorrow come from fixing 
his gaze upon the things which are above. 

Heaven is above—not in a geographical, 
but in a spiritual sense. It bends over us; it 
presses down upon us; it keeps in vital con¬ 
nection with us, ceaselessly pouring itself into 
our hearts, and into the life of the world. 
Connection with this super-sensible sphere, to 
which we instinctively look up when we pray, 
and from which the best things in life come 
down, gives to all the common things in our 
human life a new value. 

The world in which many people live is a 
very small one. They are like the insect to 
which the leaf upon which it crawls is the 
55 


56 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


whole universe. They do not look far enough. 
Their horizon is bounded by the things of 
sense; heaven is to them vague, shadowy, 
and spectral. Their eyes are earthward bent; 
and they go on through life missing the vis¬ 
ion that would change their sighing into 
songs, their night into day. 

A Scotch peasant and his wife emigrated 
to Canada, cleared a bit of forest, built their 
log cabin, and sowed their crop in a small 
clearing. One evening, when the husband 
returned from his work in the woods, he 
found his wife sitting on the doorstep weep¬ 
ing bitterly. ‘‘What’s wrang wi’ ye, my 
woman?” he asked. “I canna see oot,” she 
answered. “No,” he replied with sympathy in 
his voice, “but ye can see up ;” and he pointed 
her to the circle of heaven that, like a great 
blue eye, looked down upon her from above. 
Now there are times with all of us when we 
cannot see out, but there is no time when we 
cannot see up. If the outlook be sometimes 
dark, the uplook is always bright; if the out¬ 
look be sometimes narrow, the uplook is al¬ 
ways wide; if we are shut in by life’s trou¬ 
bles, we can look to the open heaven above 
us; if things of the outer world are forbid¬ 
ding and foreboding, we can catch glimpses 


THE UPWARD LOOK 


57 


of the glories of the upper realm. “From a 
small window,” says Carlyle, “we can see the 
infinite.” 

Not only is heaven above, God is above. 
“Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is 
from above, and cometh down from the 
Father of lights” (James 1:17). The heathen 
located their gods on earth’s high places. The 
gods of the Greeks dwelt on Mount Olympus, 
within visiting distance, but they could not be 
depended upon; their visits were uncertain, 
their spirits capricious. Falling back upon 
this conception, while connecting it with a 
clearer vision and a more certain faith, the 
Jewish worshiper exclaimed, “I will lift up 
mine eyes unto the mountains; from whence 
shall my help come? My help cometh from 
Jehovah, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 
121:1). Above the mountains, to the highest 
heaven Jesus has taught us to look, and there 
find enthroned in light one to whom we can 
pray, “Our Father which art in heaven;” and 
praying thus, can sing: 

“O little heart of mine, shall pain 
Or sorrow make thee moan, 

When all this God is all for thee, 

A Father all thine own?” 


58 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


The upward look is the sovereign cure for 
all earth’s sorrow and gloom. An Old Tes¬ 
tament writer, speaking of darkened souls 
from whom the light of hope had faded out, 
says, “They looked unto him and were radi¬ 
ant” (Psalm 34:5). Their upturned faces 
caught the glory which streamed down from 
the face of God. Being radiant, they radi¬ 
ated. The joy, and peace, and strength, and 
hope which they received they gave out to 
others—sometimes unconsciously, as in the 
case of Moses, who when he came down from 
the mount “wist not that his face shone”; 
at other times consciously, as when they re¬ 
leased power in prayer and service by the 
act of the will. But whether consciously or 
unconsciously exercised, the power that radi¬ 
ated from them was power derived from 
God; the light that rayed out from them was 
a reflection of the light of love which came 
down upon them. They were transformed 
by the vision of God which they beheld. Re¬ 
flecting his glory, as in a mirror, they were 
changed into the same image. 

It depends upon what the soul’s eyes see 
what the result of its looking will be. Let 
anyone turn his gaze toward a cloud, and a 
shadow will fall upon his face; let him turn it 


THE UPWARD LOOK 


59 


upon the sun and he will be bathed in light. 
One-half of the moon is in darkness while the 
other half is shining. Why? Because it is 
turned away from the sun. The reason why 
we walk in darkness is not because the sun 
of God’s love is eclipsed, but because we 
have turned away our faces from him. God 
is the sun of our souls, and they who look to 
him “shall not walk in darkness, but shall 
have the light of life.” 

Uncertain of God, timid of faith, Epictetus 
exclaimed, “Dare to look up.” That was the 
best a heathen sage could say. The call of 
the Christ to look up is not a dare, but an 
invitation, an entreaty, yea, a command. His 
mission to earth was to lead man to look 
heavenward and Godward. He revealed to 
them their Father in heaven, that in the light 
of his unchanging, eternal love they might 
become radiant and shining witnesses of his 
transforming power. 

The upward look is something to be prac¬ 
tised. The eye of the soul has a downward 
droop, and has to be trained to look upward. 
The world of sense is tangible and attractive, 
and its downward pull, which is as steady as 
the law of gravitation, can be overcome only 
by catching a vision of the glory that streams 


60 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


down from the upper realm. When that vis¬ 
ion is seen the soul that has cleaved to the 
dust is drawn upward, and has its place in 
the sun. 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I will look up and not down. 

I will fix my gaze upon Him who is the bright¬ 
ness of the Father’s glory, the express image of 
his person. 

I will shine in Christ’s reflected light. 

The light which I receive from Him I will radiate 
upon others. 


CHAPTER IX 


THE PRAYER OF REALIZATION 

Within the New Thought circles the view 
of prayer which generally prevails is that it 
consists simply of claiming the thing prom¬ 
ised by God, or desired by man, and acting 
as if it were already in hand, or on the way. 
With this view there would be unmixed sat¬ 
isfaction were it not unfortunately so often 
accompanied by the elimination from prayer 
of the elements of communion and petition, 
and also a naive ignoring of the process 
which leads up to the result. The fruit is 
plucked and appropriated by those who have 
no use for the tree that bore it. 

Psychologically considered, “the prayer of 
realization,” or, if you will, the realization 
of prayer—that is, the realization of its ob¬ 
jects and ends—is reached by the following 
stages: 

1. Desire. 

Desire is embryonic prayer. God is said 
to “hear the desires of the humble.” He 
hears them before they are voiced in words. 

61 


62 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Weak desire makes weak praying; strong de¬ 
sire makes strong praying. The revelation 
of need affords the stimuli by which desire is 
awakened and intensified, and only when de¬ 
sire is deep and keen does prayer become 
importunate. 

2. Aspiration. 

Desire is outbreathed; it expresses itself in 
outreach and upreach. What the soul desires 
it endeavors to obtain. “One thing have I 
desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.” 
The soul in prayer is not passive—lying open 
to God as a plowed field to the rain; it 
actively seeks after God, pressing into his 
presence, and reaching out the hand to re¬ 
ceive the promised blessing. Prayer is send¬ 
ing the soul into the invisible in the great 
adventure of finding God. 

3. Petition. 

From aspiration prayer passes into petition 
or supplication—the direct asking of things 
from God, either for ourselves or for others. 
Prayer is more than desire; it is more than 
the reaching of the heart after God; it is 
presenting to him specific requests. It is 
not enough to cultivate a prayerful spirit; we 
must have speech with God; we must hear 


THE PRAYER OF REALIZATION 63 


his voice and speak to him in return; we 
must seek audience with him for a distinct 
purpose. We must come to him as suppli¬ 
ants, having some definite favor to ask from 
his hand. This he encourages us to do. He 
‘‘waits to be gracious.” He delights in our 
fellowship. He is more ready to give than 
we are to receive. His attitude toward every 
suppliant soul is expressed in the words, 
“What wilt thou, that I will do unto thee?” 

4. Anticipation. 

There is an anticipatory element in prayer. 
When a thing is desired, sought after, and 
asked for, it is anticipated. Something is ex¬ 
pected to happen in answer to prayer. God 
being taken at his word, there is a calm and 
watchful waiting for the fulfillment of his 
promise. 

5. Realization. 

This is the last stage in the process. The 
thing looked forward to has come into sight; 
faith has at length reached fruition; the 
blessing anticipated is claimed, appropriated 
and realized. The praying soul lays the hand 
of faith upon it, saying, “It is mine,” and 
entering into its possession, lives in the en¬ 
joyment of it. 


64 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Is the application of this principle to be 
made without any restriction or qualification 
whatsoever? Are we warranted to claim as 
already ours anything that we may desire? 
There are those who, far from staggering at 
the greatness of the difficulties involved, take 
literally the Master’s words: “All things 
whatsoever ye ask and pray for, believe that 
ye receive them and ye shall have them” 
(Mark 11:24) ; forgetting that no such prom¬ 
ise can be absolute in its sweep; but it is to 
be interpreted in the light of the whole tenor 
of our Lord’s teaching, which clearly shows 
that God never promises to give indiscrim - 
inatingly all things whatsoever we ask and 
pray for, but only those things which are in 
harmony with his will. There are many 
things which we in our ignorance may ask 
which he mercifully denies. He gives all 
things which he in his wisdom and love sees 
to be best for us to have. Whatever is right 
to desire is right to ask; and whatever is 
best to have God will give. 

Is this a cancellation of the Master’s prom¬ 
ise? By no means. It is simply an explana¬ 
tion of it. It harmonizes these words of his 
not alone with the general teaching of Scrip¬ 
ture, but with what takes place in actual ex- 


THE PRAYER OF REALIZATION 65 


perience. We well know that claiming a 
thing and attempting to take it over does not 
make it ours unless God’s consignment of it 
to us coincides with our part in the transac¬ 
tion. If it is in his will that we should have 
it, it will be ours, but not otherwise. And 
what true child of his would ask for any¬ 
thing more than that his will should be done 
in answer to his prayer? 

Therefore, in one respect only is that prom¬ 
ise absolute, and that is in regarding the 
words “all things whatsoever” as receiving 
fulfillment in the will of God. Every prayer 
lying outside of his will falls to the ground. 
To one who prays aright it matters not 
whether the particular thing asked for be 
granted or withheld, so that God’s will be 
done; for that is the bottom desire, which 
underlies all others, in true prayer. To lose 
ourselves in God’s will is to come to the end 
of all torturing anxiety and uncertainty; for 
if his will is done the essential thing in our 
prayer has been realized. 

When prayer reaches realization it ought 
to pass into praise; for what can afford 
greater ground for joy and thankfulness than 
the working out of the divine will in prayer? 
When the thing prayed for is attained, prayer 


66 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


for it ought to cease, for the reason that it 
is unseemly to keep asking over and over 
again for that which is already ours. And 
in its turn, the changing of prayer into praise 
will lead to the confirming of our faith, by 
setting the seal of the soul to the fact that 
prayer has been answered, thus bringing our 
prayer to a still greater fulness of realization. 

AFFIRMATIONS. 

Above me an open heaven, and a listening Father. 

Around me a bounteous world administered for 
my benefit. 

Within me the sweet assurance that no desire 
outbreathed in prayer will return void, if within the 
will of Him who knows and loves me best. 


CHAPTER X 


ADJUSTING THE BALANCE 

Any “thought” movement is apt to become 
spiritually sterile unless it is balanced by 
active participation in some form of benefi¬ 
cent human ministry. We keep saying that 
thoughts are real, substantial things; that 
while we cannot see them, or measure them, 
or weigh them, we can feel them pull, and 
prod, and push; but we sometimes forget 
that they have no compelling power, and that 
they cannot influence us except we yield to 
them. When they urge us forward in the 
right way, we can resist them, and hold back. 
As Paul puts it, we can “hold the truth in 
unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18) ; that is, hold 
the truth at arms’ length that we may con¬ 
tinue in unrighteousness. Many do this. 
They play fast and loose with the truth; they 
accept it, and admire it, but they do not 
allow it to operate. And what are new 
thoughts worth if they do not stir up new 
impulses that issue in a new life? And what 
67 


68 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


are good thoughts worth if they do not stir 
up good impulses that issue in a good life? 
A man may have a bright intellect and have a 
bad heart; he may contend for the truth while 
living a lie; he may be sound in the faith 
while rotten in his life. Thought is not the 
final thing. It is not an end, but a means to 
an end; and if its end is not reached, what 
doth it profit? 

St. James in his Epistle presents the other 
side of religion. In giving the only direct 
definition of it to be found in the New Tes¬ 
tament, he says: “Pure religion and unde¬ 
filed before God and the Father is this, to 
visit the fatherless and widows in their af¬ 
fliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from 
the world” (1:27). In the present day there 
is among Christian people a strong reaction 
from the intellectual conception of religion 
which formerly prevailed, to the position of 
James. The earth-side of religion is being 
emphasized. Sociology is taking the place of 
theology. Men are not asking, What do you 
think of God? so much as they are asking, 
What are you doing for men ? In this change 
of front there is no small gain. Religion 
has been brought down from the clouds, and 
has been made a practical thing—a thing not 


ADJUSTING THE BALANCE 69 


of the future world merely, but primarily a 
thing of the world that now is. The pressing 
social and industrial problems which good 
men everywhere have been forced to face 
have centered their attention upon things per¬ 
taining to the betterment of the condition of 
the toiling masses. Never were so many peo¬ 
ple girding themselves for the task of lighten¬ 
ing the heavy burdens of the less fortunate 
classes; never was more being done to pro¬ 
vide for them the means of physical comfort 
and spiritual improvement; never was more 
honest effort made to bring them to their own, 
and so make this world a better place to 
live in. 

But while this change is cause for gratifi¬ 
cation, there remains the fear lest, in our 
eagerness to redress outstanding wrongs, we 
should fail rightly to adjust the balance of 
truth. A sad thing will it be for the world if 
God be left out of thoughts, or if there is 
given to him a secondary place. The work¬ 
ingmen of today need God first. They need 
a better knowledge of God more than they 
need better wages, better houses, better 
clothes, and better food. In the whole life of 
men there is nothing more vital and impor¬ 
tant than true thoughts of God, and unless 


70 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


they think right thoughts about him, unless 
they discern in all things his purpose of re¬ 
demption, and endeavor to bring the world 
into harmony with it, all their beautiful 
schemes of social and industrial reform will 
come to naught. 

The Church, which is the body of Christ, 
is the medium through which he works. She 
is the appointed mediator between God and 
man. Her special task is to bring God to 
man, and man to God. With one hand she 
is to reach up and take hold upon God, with 
the other reach out and minister to man. 
She must not forget to look around upon the 
field of her service, nor must she forget to 
look up to the source of her inspiration; she 
must not neglect to cultivate practical benevo¬ 
lence toward man; nor must she neglect to 
keep in view the God for whose sake her 
works of love are done. Without the mighty 
impulse to social service which thoughts of 
God alone can bring, humanitarianism will 
become mechanical and superficial. To work 
for man without the uplift which comes from 
thoughts of God is like attempting to fly 
without wings. By thoughts of God altru¬ 
istic activities are fed. For anyone to say 
that he is so much absorbed in practical 


ADJUSTING THE BALANCE 71 


things that he has no time to think, or pray, 
is much the same as for him to say that he is 
so busied with the duties of life that he has 
no time to eat or to breathe. Nothing is more 
potent, nothing more practical, than an open- 
minded, open-hearted consideration of the 
question, “What do I think of God?’’ When 
that question is satisfactorily answered, there 
will follow the complemental question, “What 
am I doing for man?” Godward thinking, if 
it has its way, will always lead to manward 
doing. Right thinking, if faithfully followed, 
will always lead to right living. 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I must do right as well as think right. 

I must let the truth have full course in my soul 
that it may be glorified in my life. 

I am a citizen of two worlds, and have interests 
in both. 

My duties to God do not conflict with my duties 
to my fellow-men. 










CHAPTER XI 


REPOSE—AND HOW TO GET IT 

A mistake which many of the modern cults 
fall into consists in making repose a me¬ 
chanical thing, something to be acquired by 
practice, like playing upon the piano. The 
substance of their teaching is, Calm your¬ 
self ; breathe deeply; relax your taut muscles; 
cease from struggling, and let yourself go, 
and you will find repose. Yes, you may find 
repose of body in that way, and indirectly 
gain a measure of mental repose—and that 
means a great deal to one who is suffering 
from nervous overstrain. But such instruc¬ 
tion does not go deep enough. It does not 
reach the depth of the soul’s need; it does 
not calm the troubled waters of a sorrowful 
heart; it does not ease the burden of a guilty 
conscience; it does not give the peace that 
passeth understanding. What we need is an 
experience of Christ’s comforting love that 
will give rest to the soul when the body is 
racked with pain; that will give steadiness of 
poise under life’s yokes and burdens; and that 
will give an inward stillness and tranquillity 
73 


74 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


“when all without tumultuous seems”—a rest 
which will be, in short, like the center of 
calm at the heart of a cyclone. Such a rest 
cannot come from a change in outward con¬ 
ditions, but must have its source within the 
soul, and must consist in the removal of that 
which is the cause of all disturbance. 

There is a spurious kind of repose which 
comes from mental numbness. All question¬ 
ing and reasoning are given up, and the soul 
simply floats on the stream, or an opiate is 
taken which puts the soul to sleep. The re¬ 
sult is a dull, bovine insensibility which Vir¬ 
gil describes as “most like indeed to death’s 
own quietness,” and which ends in the rest 
of Nirvana. This is not the rest which 
Christ gives. His rest is positive, not nega¬ 
tive ; active, not passive; a tonic, not an 
opiate. It is rest in the spirit’s deepest 
depths; rest which is unbroken when facing 
the disturbing facts of life; rest which noth¬ 
ing can destroy because it is founded upon 
Him who is the world’s fixed center. Every¬ 
one possessing it can sing out of the heart of 
the storm: 

“I smiled to think that God’s completeness flowed 
around our incompleteness, 

Round our restlessness His rest.” 


REPOSE—AND HOW TO GET IT 7 5 


We are apt to think that never was the 
world’s unrest greater than now. But unrest 
is a race condition, and is not confined to 
any particular time or place. This world 
has always been full of disquietude and dis¬ 
turbance. Yet whatever the present may be 
compared to the past, it is generally con¬ 
ceded to be restless in an emphatic degree. 
Having become more self-conscious and sen¬ 
sitive, it has become more restive under its 
burdens. Its unrest is deep and wide, and 
affects every part of man’s complex life, and 
finds its way into every corner of the globe. 

The restless West is disturbing the peace 
of the slumbering East, and prodding it into 
activity. The peace of stagnation is being 
hopelessly broken. Points of friction are be¬ 
coming more numerous and acute. Every¬ 
thing within the intellectual, social, political, 
and religious spheres is in a state of ferment, 
and we are anxiously waiting and watching 
for the process to be completed, and wonder¬ 
ing why it is so long continued. The modern 
spirit of scientific inquiry has come in as a 
disturbing element. It has pulverized many 
existing theories, and has put us under the 
necessity of constructing better ones. The 
revolt against poverty; the demand for a 


76 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


higher standard of living, and for new values 
of life, have brought about economic changes, 
and the demands of our enlarging life in¬ 
crease faster than our power to gratify them. 
We have more comforts, but less comfort; 
we are better off, but we are less satisfied. 
As another has said, “It is not the high cost 
of living, but the cost of high living that 
worries us.” We are living too fast, the 
pace is killing us. We pursue our pleasures 
in a hot-footed way. The travel fever is in 
the blood, and we foolishly attempt to ex¬ 
tinguish its inward fires by pouring oil upon 
them. Seventy-five per cent, of our diseases 
are functional disorders of the nervous sys¬ 
tem, a proportion never known before in the 
history of the race. Americans are the chief 
sufferers. As a people we are fast coming 
to a place where calmness of the spirit, which 
is a true index of power, is practically un¬ 
known. 

The problems before us in the present day 
are how to maintain repose of spirit in the 
midst of these conditions; how to stand in 
the midst of life’s mad whirl, 

“Serene, and resolute, and still, 

And calm, and self-possessed.” 


REPOSE—AND HOW TO GET IT 77 


Much may be gained by keeping a firm hold 
upon ourselves; but that is not enough, for 
at the touch of some great tragedy our self- 
sufficiency may vanish. We can find abiding 
tranquillity only when the soul is centered 
upon God. St. Augustine was the mouth¬ 
piece of the race when he exclaimed, “O God, 
thou hast made us for Thyself; and we are 
forever restless until we find our rest in 
Thee.” Faith in God is the door of the 
temple of peace. A life of trust is a life of 
repose. “We who have believed do enter 
into rest.” 

Connected with the aeroplane there is a 
recent invention called a “stabilizer,” which 
corrects its erratic movements, and keeps it 
in the proper course in spite of the strong 
and treacherous air-currents with which it 
has to contend. In the life of the spirit faith 
in the eternal, unchanging God is our great 
stabilizer. It steadies us, and keeps us in 
our appointed path^ enabling us to steer 
right onward in the teeth of every storm, and 
to triumph over every obstacle that might 
deflect us from our course. 

Before sin-tossed and care-tossed souls the 
Christ forever stands, as the representative 
of the Eternal Father, saying, “Come unto 


78 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest.” That he has “all 
the religious value of God” and is able to 
make his promise good, Christian experience 
abundantly testifies. There is rest from him, 
and in him; rest where he is; rest within the 
circle of his fellowship. 

“There is a secret place of rest 
God’s saints alone can know, 

Thou shalt not find it East or West 
Though seeking to and fro. 

A cell where Jesus is the door, 

His love the only key, 

Who enters will go out no more 
But there with Jesus be.” 

—The Inner Life. 

Goethe has said, “On every mountain 
height is rest.” Rather let us say, With 
Christ on every mountain height is rest. It 
is only when the mountain height is a place 
of divine communion that it is a place of rest. 
If a man goes there by himself, and in the 
silence hears no voice, and in the solitude 
sees no face, the mountain height will be to 
him an empty place; but if he finds Christ 
there, it will be to him a place of vision and 
transfiguration. In His companionship the 


REPOSE—AND HOW TO GET IT 79 


petty cares and trials that buzzed around 
him in the valley will be forgotten; he will 
be above the cloudline of trouble and the 
noise of the city from which he has fled will 
seem very far away. 

The rest, which with all our striving we 
have failed to obtain, Christ bestows upon us 
as a free gift. He can give it because he 
has it to give. He says, “My peace I give 
unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto 
you.” Not merely a peace like his, but the 
very peace which he himself possesses; a 
peace that is part of his own, as a drop of 
water is part of the ocean, or a ray of light 
is part of the sun, is the great and satisfying 
gift with which he fills our weary, troubled 
hearts. 

To receive the gift of Christ’s own restful¬ 
ness of spirit we must come to him, enter 
into personal relation with him, and make the 
great venture of putting ourselves, and all the 
complicated interests of our lives, into his 
hands. When that is done there will be an 
inward tranquillity of soul whose surface may 
at times be ruffled, but whose hidden depths 
no element of disturbance can e’er invade. 


80 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

It has been given to me to possess an eternal 
Sabbath of the soul. 

Sinking into the everlasting arms, my spirit finds 
repose. 

The rest that God bestows when not rest from 
trouble is rest in trouble. 

With my feet upon the Rock of Ages I stand 
unmoved while life’s wild restless sea surges around 
me. 




CHAPTER XII 


HEALTH AND RELIGION 

A well known novelist represents one of 
his characters as saying that the stars are like 
“apples on the trees—most of them splendid 
and sound, a few of them blighted.” This 
world is one of the blighted ones. It has been 
blighted by sickness. There has always been 
sickness in it. Up to the present time sick¬ 
ness has been the lot of all. No way of es¬ 
cape from it has yet been found. It is part 
of the present scheme of things. The prophet 
Isaiah, looking down into the future, saw a 
happy condition of things in which “the in¬ 
habitants shall not say, I am sick”; but that 
ideal state is still far away. 

Yet sickness is an intruder. We are con¬ 
stantly battling with it to expel it from the 
world. It is one of the disturbing elements 
that militate against man’s happiness, and 
that must pass away when a perfect state is 
reached. Take the word disease itself. As 
its form indicates, it means dis-ease, or the 
81 


82 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


absence of ease. It is a disturbing element 
in life. Health is harmony, disease is discord; 
health is wholeness, disease is a break in 
the order of life. To be cured of disease is 
to have the unity of life restored. 

In these days of multiplied healing cults, 
which mushroomlike spring up in a night, 
nothing is more urgently needed than a care¬ 
ful study of the laws according to which the 
power to heal operates. To understand these 
laws we must first of all get to the cause of 
the disease. Now, the principal cause of dis¬ 
ease is sin. We have sick bodies because we 
have sinful souls. Disease came into the 
world with sin and will go out with sin. The 
real blight from which the world is suffering 
is the blight of sin, and sickness is only a 
surface symptom of a deeper malady. But 
besides the primal cause of sin there are prox¬ 
imate causes; and it is with these that ones 
diagnosis of any particular case has mainly 
to do. 

Speaking generally, some diseases have a 
physical root, being caused by the infraction 
of some physical law; others have a mental 
root, being caused by the infraction of some 
mental law; still others have a moral root, 
being caused by the infraction of some moral 



HEALTH AND RELIGION 83 


4 


law. But seldom is the explanation quite so 
simple. Things do not always go in a straight 
line. They frequently overlap. Hence we 
have physical diseases which are to be traced 
to a mental root, and diseases of mind and 
body which spring from a moral root. Yet 
taken in the large, the classification will stand. 

The first class of diseases, then, to be con¬ 
sidered are those which are purely physical, 
being produced by physical causes, and cured 
only by physical remedies. Sometimes they 
may be directly traced to germs, bad sanita¬ 
tion, want of sunlight, improper nourishment, 
or a vicious heredity. Over this class of 
causes the mind has no power. They are as 
impervious to suggestion as a decayed tooth; 
prayer is as impotent to reach them as when 
taken as a substitute for a surgical operation. 
A very pathetic and somewhat humorous in¬ 
stance of this kind was furnished by a staid 
and goodly deacon, who became afflicted with 
a serious mental trouble, and manifested cer¬ 
tain depraved tendencies. The obscene lan¬ 
guage which poured from his lips shocked his 
friends. His former life had been pure, and 
the only conclusion they could come to was 
that he had become possessed with an un¬ 
clean devil. Prayer was offered for the ex- 


84 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


orcising of the evil spirit, but to no avail. 
He was sent to a neighboring sanitarium, 
where he fell into the hands of a skillful 
physician, a thoroughgoing materialist, who 
believed that all moral maladies were to be 
traced to physical causes. Upon a careful 
study of the case he made the discovery that 
at one time the deacon had received a punc¬ 
ture of the skull, and he became convinced 
that all his mental and moral disturbance 
came from pressure upon one of the nerve- 
centers of the brain. An operation was re¬ 
sorted to, with the result that a small tumor 
was discovered and removed. Upon its re¬ 
moval all the painful disturbance ceased, and 
his former calm and moral selfhood was re¬ 
stored. Not knowing what had happened, his 
pastor and a few friends went to the sani¬ 
tarium to pray for him, when they were met 
by the medical superintendent, who said, 
“Gentlemen, you were quite right; the good ' 
deacon was possessed of a devil, but I have 
captured him, and put him into a bottle; and 
if you will come into my office I will show 
him to you.” They went in, and were shown 
the tumor which had been extracted from 
the deacon’s brain; and the deacon himself 
they found restored to his right mind—his 


HEALTH AND RELIGION 85 


temporary aberration having passed away like 
an ugly dream. 

Here apparently was a complete demon¬ 
stration of the doctor’s position that man is 
simply an animal, and that all mental maladies 
are to be traced to physical causes. What it 
did not prove is that man is an animal only. 
A half truth was substituted for a whole 
truth; a universal conclusion was drawn from 
a particular premise. It is just as true that 
there are multitudes of cases, described by 
physicians as neurasthenic, where physical ail¬ 
ments can unquestionably be traced to mental 
causes. The former require the service of a 
physician; the latter call for the services of a 
true “cure of souls” who can “minister to a 
mind diseased.” 

Psychic disturbance suggests psychic treat¬ 
ment. Man is a unit, composed of body and 
soul, and the soul itself may be sick, and may 
need attention first. There are multitudes of 
cases which material remedies cannot reach, 
for the reason that they do not go deep 
enough. The springs of life are within, and 
from within life is to be renewed. When 
one’s thoughts have been allowed to run along 
hurtful lines, the lever has to be reversed so 
as to turn them in a new direction. From 


86 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


gloomy thoughts the mind must be wrenched, 
and fixed upon things that are hopeful and 
happy. As soon as this is done the tide of 
new life will begin to flow in; the skies will 
clear, and the equilibrium which is the con¬ 
dition of perfect health will be recovered. 

In the third class of cases, where disease 
is traceable to moral causes, only moral medi¬ 
cine will avail. Diagnosing the case of the 
paralytic whom he cured at the pool of Be- 
thesda, the Great Physician clearly indicated, 
in the counsel with which he dismissed him, 
that his physical infirmity was the result of 
his sinful life. “Go and sin no more,” he 
said, “lest a worse thing befall thee” (John 
5:14); suggesting that a repetition of his 
former sinful indulgence would be followed 
by an increased harvest of physical weakness. 
Sensual indulgence is the tap-root of disease. 
“Just disease on luxury succeeds,” and it fol¬ 
lows at the heels of every evil habit. Bad * 
living shortens life. The wicked man “does 
not live half his days,” but of the good man, 
the Lord himself hath said, “with long life 
will I satisfy him.” 

But while the general relation of sickness 
to sin is obvious enough, when we come to 
particular instances it is always dangerous to 


HEALTH AND RELIGION 87 


attribute them to specific sins. Upon a cer¬ 
tain occasion Jesus was asked: “Rabbi, who 
sinned, this man or his parents that he should 
be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither.” 
The explanation lay elsewhere. Nevertheless, 
instances might be adduced in which children 
have suffered on account of their parents. 
The law of heredity often works in that way. 
A grandfather’s gluttony may be his grand¬ 
son’s gout. It is not always possible, how¬ 
ever, to trace the stream to its source. Com¬ 
plete immunity from' disease no one has ever 
yet achieved. Hence to say, “As a child of 
God you are not subject to sickness” is to run 
counter to the facts of life. We know that 
God’s spiritual children are often sick, and 
that the holiest of them sometimes suffer 
most; but we know also that God’s healing 
power is ever in exercise; and that in the 
bosom of his love his sick child can find con¬ 
solation and health. We speak of divine 
healing, as if there was healing of any other 
sort. All healing is divine. All life is from 
God, the source of life. Whatever may be 
the means employed it is God who heals. “I 
am the Lord who healeth thee,” is the state¬ 
ment of a universal truth. 

God wants to heal; he is waiting to heal. 


88 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Through every channel that is open to him 
he is ready to pour his life-giving energy into 
the bodies and souls of men. “I dressed the 
wound,” said an eminent Surgeon; “and God 
healed it.” So anxious is he to convey his 
healing power to his suffering children that 
he will accommodate himself to their ignor¬ 
ance and superstition; working for them from 
within outwards, or from outwards within, as 
they elect; demanding only three things: to 
wit, that they put absolute trust in his healing 
power; that they leave the disposal of every 
case in his hands; and that to the limit of 
their ability they cooperate with him in work¬ 
ing out the ends desired. 

AFFIRMATIONS. 

My springs are in God. 

Whatever is in God for anyone is in God for me. 

God is to me an ever-open, ever-flowing fountain 
of life and health. - 

God is seeking to repair what is broken in me 
that I may become “every whit whole,” and to 
supply what is lacking that I may become a per¬ 
fect man. 


CHAPTER XIII 


TRUE OPTIMISM 

There is an easy-going optimism that de¬ 
lights in repeating the words of Browning:— 

“God’s in his heaven— 

All’s right with the world.” 

Browning himself supplies a commentary on 
these words, which is better than the text 
itself. He says, “I hold not with the pessi¬ 
mist that all things are ill, nor with the opti¬ 
mist that all things are well. All things are 
not ill, and all things are not well, but all 
things shall be well because this is God's 
world.” We all know that there is much in 
this world that is wrong; much that is con¬ 
trary to the will of God, much that militates 
against the highest welfare of man. But this 
is God’s world; and he is in it working to 
put all things right; and somehow we have 
the confidence that he will ultimately succeed 
in putting them right. 

True optimism is not blind. It does not re- 
89 


90 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


fuse to consider the ugly, unpleasant facts of 
life. Nor does it cry out, “Peace! Peace!” 
when there is no peace—ostrich-wise burying 
its head in the sand, and foolishly imagining 
itself to be safe because it does not see its 
danger. It neither denies nor ignores the 
facts, but faces them frankly; taking due ac¬ 
count of the strength of antagonistic forces, 
and of the dangers and difficulties that beset 
the life of the times, yet believing that there 
is some way out; and that in the end every 
cloud will melt into sunshine, and every dark 
night of trouble end in glorious day. 

In the spread of the spirit of optimism New 
Thought has played an important part. It 
takes an optimistic view of human nature, be¬ 
lieving that in every man are lodged the 
forces necessary to his recovery and develop¬ 
ment; it takes an optimistic view of life, be¬ 
lieving that it holds within it endless possi-, 
bilities of improvement; it takes an optimistic 
view of the world, believing that the forces 
of good in it are adequate to overcome the 
forces of evil, and that the eternal right will 
prosper in the end. Where it has failed is in 
not discerning the ground of the very opti¬ 
mism which it so persistently cherishes. 

Why should we be hopeful of human na- 


TRUE OPTIMISM 


91 


ture? Why should we believe that good will 
be the final goal in life and history? It is 
not enough to say that things have been or¬ 
dained to work out in that way. Some rea¬ 
son must be found for this propulsion toward 
the perfect. Christianity has its answer; and 
it is the only one that has an adequate reason 
to give for the very existence of optimism 
itself; or an adequate explanation to offer for 
the realization of its dreams. Because there 
is in human nature a power working for re¬ 
pair to which man can ally himself; because 
there is in the world a power working for 
redemption with which he can cooperate, 
there is good ground for hope, alike for the 
individual and for society. Once let the world 
be looked upon as a world with Christ in it, 
and it will not be seen as going to destruction, 
but as on its way to redemption. Once let 
the vision come of the Christ who died upon 
the Cross as now seated upon the throne, 
“from henceforth expecting until his enemies 
be made the footstool of his feet,” and the 
future is assured. Slowly but surely all op¬ 
position must give way before him who is 
“going forth conquering and to conquer.” 
The advancement of his kingdom may be ac¬ 
complished by great waste; every victory may 


92 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


be won at terrible expense and sacrifice; but 
the prize will be worth the price. 

It is frequently maintained that optimism 
is a matter of temperament; that there are 
some people who are natural optimists, just 
as there are others who are natural pessi¬ 
mists. They are made that way. 

“Two men looked through prison bars, 

The one saw mud, the other saw stars ” 

Each followed his own bent, and saw what 
he was prepared to see. He had very largely 
made himself what he was. If anyone has the 
misfortune to have a black drop of melancholy 
in his blood, is he on that account doomed 
to lifelong pessimism? By no means. By 
careful discipline, by compelling himself to 
look habitually upon the brighter side of 
things, he may so completely conquer fyis 
natural proclivity as to become strongest 
where he is weakest. From being a pro¬ 
nounced pessimist he can be changed into the 
sunniest of optimists. To his own striving 
let him add the cooperating grace of Christ 
and the transformation will be complete. He 
will then become the very opposite of what he 
was by nature. “Old things will pass away, 


TRUE OPTIMISM 


93 


and all things will become new.” “Instead of 
the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and in¬ 
stead of the brier shall come up the myrtle 
tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, 
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut 
off” (Is. 55:13.) 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

Because today is better than yesterday I believe 
that tomorrow will be better than today. 

Because good is stronger than evil, love than 
hate, I live in the sunny certainty that all will one 
day be well. 

Because Christ loves and reigns I am confident 
that the world is on its way to redemption, and not 
to ruin. 


f 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE POWER OF INITIATIVE 

God has endowed man with something of 
his own creative power, so that within the 
sphere of morals he can originate change, 
shape his own character, and achieve his own 
destiny. As a moral being he possesses the 
power of initiative and referendum. He can 
do new things, unexpected things, for which 
he alone is responsible. Out of the midst of 
a host of claimants for his suffrage he can 
choose some, and reject others. In the exer¬ 
cise of his veto power he can vote one meas¬ 
ure up and another measure down. To him, 
within the kingdom of the spirit, belongs im¬ 
perial power. 

Are his sovereign edicts always obeyed? 
Not always. For while as a moral being 
he possesses the power to will, as a finite 
and fallen being he often lacks “the will to 
power.” He is often found sitting amidst the 
ruins of his former greatness, an uncrowned 
95 


96 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


king issuing empty mandates. “When he 
would do good evil is present with him.” 
Power over himself he has, but not always 
power over his circumstances. He is often 
ringed around by an iron wall, through which 
he cannot break. Powerless to do, he is yet 
free to choose; his hands are tied, but his will 
is free; his body is in bondage, but his soul 
is his own; outwardly he may be a slave, 
while inwardly a king; outwardly a victim of 
fate, while inwardly crowned with victory. 

“All that life needs for life,” says Tenny¬ 
son, “is possible to will.” There are many 
things we would never think of willing, inas¬ 
much as they obviously lie beyond our reach, 
or outside the sphere of obligation. Only the 
things that may and ought to be done come 
within the circle of legitimate choice. Man is 
a finite being; but within the bars of his cage 
he has all the freedom that is good for him to 
have, and all that he ought to desire. 

But the will is more than a directing power; 
it is also a driving power—the dynamo of the 
soul. By its exercise a man may urge his 
reluctant feet to take the upward way; when 
tempted to self-indulgence he can compel him¬ 
self to go against the grain of inclination, and 
do the thing which his better nature indicates; 


THE POWER OF INITIATIVE 97 


when he is in danger of being overcome by 
inertia and lethargy he can stab his soul 
awake, and “exercise himself into godliness”; 
when the spirit of devotion burns low he can 
stir up the gift that is within him as one 
might stir up a slumbering fire; when he is 
beginning to relax his vigilance, and to let 
himself down to a lower plane of living, he 
can plunge his spurs into the flanks of his 
flagging resolution, and push on to higher 
things; when his mind is growing sluggish, 
and is in danger of becoming atrophied and 
decrepit, he can hold himself down to un¬ 
congenial tasks, with the grim determination 
of seeing them through; and when the old 
Adam within him squirms and protests as 
he is moved by some generous, noble impulse, 
he can give till he feels the pinch, and work 
till he feels the grind. If his will is feeble 
to begin with, he can grow a better one; and 
by resisting what is wrong, and doing what 
is right it will keep waxing stronger and 
stronger. 

To bring man into harmony with His plan 
in his life God acts upon the will—the center 
of moral personality—applying to it the 
proper stimuli, so as to incite it to right ac¬ 
tion. His influence is suasive. He impels, 


98 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


but does not compel. What he seeks is man’s 
consent and cooperation. For that he works 
and waits. In the union of God and man we 
have two separate and independent wills co¬ 
operating to the accomplishment of the same 
end. Man’s will does not sink into the divine 
and become lost in it, as the rain-drop that 
falls into the bosom of the ocean. When we 
say 

“Our wills are ours, we know not how; 

Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.” 

they do not cease to be our own because we 
have given them to God. If he controls them 
it is because we elect to have it so. 

The union of divine and human action in 
the moral life is nowhere more clearly brought 
out than in the words of Paul: “Work out 
your own salvation with fear and trembling; 
for it is God who worketh in you both to will 
and to work, for his good pleasure” (Phil. 
2:13). That is to say, Do your best for 
yourself, seeing that God is doing his best 
for you; work out your own salvation as if 
all depended upon yourself, but work it out 
hopefully, seeing you have an unseen ally who 
is working for you and in you that you may 
be enabled to will and to do his good pleasure. 


THE POWER OF INITIATIVE 99 


We often meet with those who take pride 
in being self-made men; but it is only in a 
very limited sense that any man is self-made. 
The little boy who told a visitor who boasted 
of that distinction, “Pa says you made a mis¬ 
take when you did not get somebody else to 
help you,” spoke wiser than he knew. We 
all need the help of someone else. There is, 
however, one thing to be said on the behalf 
of self-made men,—they relieve the Lord of 
a great deal of responsibility. Between these 
two extremes lies the whole truth. There is a 
sense in which every man is self-made or self- 
marred; there is another and deeper sense in 
which some men are God-made and God-re¬ 
deemed. Ye are “God’s workmanship”; God’s 
finished product, said Paul, speaking of Chris¬ 
tians generally. There is no need therefore 
to dispute the truth of the lines 

“Man is the maker of immortal fate 
Man falls by man, if finally he falls.” 

provided that at the same time we admit as 
equally true that if man finally falls, it is be¬ 
cause he has failed to avail himself of the 
undergirding of divine power. 

God’s part in the work of character making 


100 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


is never uncertain; man’s part is. To come 
to his own man must call into exercise his 
God-given power of initiative. He cannot 
float into virtue; he cannot come into posses¬ 
sion of his heavenly inheritance any more than 
he can come into possession of his earthly 
inheritance unless he lays his hands upon it. 
Nothing but disappointment will come to him 
if he assumes the attitude of calm passive¬ 
ness represented in the lines:— 

“Serene I fold my hands and wait, 

Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea, 

I rave no more ’gainst time and fate, 

For lo, mine own shall come to me. 

I stay my haste, I make delays, 

For what avails this eager pace? 

I stand amid eternal ways, 

And what is mine shall know my face.” 

Imagine a business man talking in that way; 
folding his arms and waiting for something 
to turn up instead of going out and turning 
something up! It may be laid down as an 
axiom that in the outer and spiritual worlds 
alike, we get what we go after. 


THE POWER OF INITIATIVE 101 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

As a free moral being I possess creative power. 

No one can make me other than what I will 
myself to be. 

My soul cannot die save as the result of spiritual 
suicide; my soul cannot live save as the result of 
my voluntary union with the Divine. 

My highest freedom is found in obedience to 
divine law, my highest efficiency in union with Al¬ 
mighty Power. 
























CHAPTER XV 


SELF-CONTROL Versus DIVINE-CONTROL 

In the reports of automobile accidents we 
are frequently told that the driver lost con¬ 
trol of his machine. What really happened 
was that he lost control of himself. There 
is where the trouble started. And there is 
where the trouble starts in many of life’s 
catastrophes. A man loses self-control of the 
things he handles, and over which he ought 
to hold the mastery. 

Self-control, with its suggestion of reserved 
power, is a quality to be coveted. We all 
admire an upstanding man “of equal poise 
and control,” self-collected, and in full com¬ 
mand of all his powers, but a fussy, vacil¬ 
lating man we pity when we do not despise. 
There is an Old Testament oracle to the ef¬ 
fect, “In quietness and confidence shall be 
your strength.” Quietness and confidence 
give to a man that indefinable quality called 
poise, in every motion of which there is rest; 
a quality which differs from pose, as that 
103 


104 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


r 


which is natural differs from that which is 
artificial, or as gold differs from gilding; 
and which enables a man to hold himself to¬ 
gether, and keep himself in hand, so as to 
make the most of himself in any situation of 
life. 

1. A self-controlled man has, first of all, 
control of his thoughts. He has mastery over 
his mind so as to be able to call in his wander¬ 
ing thoughts, or better still keep them from 
wandering. The thoughts that troop through 
his mind are like a closely tended flock of 
sheep. He also has power to preserve his 
mental balance, and to manifest that collected¬ 
ness of mind that enables him to look at two 
sides of a question. He is not carried to and 
fro with every changing wind of sentiment. 
He stands upon his own feet, and^thinks and 
acts for himself. 

The mental caliber of the self-controlled 
man may not be of the highest, yet he will 
often outstrip in efficiency men of greater 
parts whose minds are undisciplined and 
chaotic. Every man’s success depends less 
upon his material equipment than upon the 
use he makes of it. In the race of life the 
prize is not always to the swift; and in the 
battle of life the victory is not always to the 


SELF- vs. DIVINE-CONTROL 105 


strong. The first are often last, and the last 
first. 

2. A self-controlled man has control of his 
emotions. He has learned to keep them under 
restraint. When caught in an emotional storm 
he does not ship the rudder, but holds it in a 
firm and steady hand until the storm has 
blown over. He is calm but not passionless. 
His composure is not that of an Egyptian 
mummy; it comes from the subjugation of 
emotion, not from its absence. Fluctuations 
of feeling he cannot avoid, but he steers 
straight on, keeping a watch upon his moods 
so as not to allow himself to become moody. 

Those who are governed by impulse are 
still in a state of spiritual childhood. Power 
to control the feelings belongs to a state of 
spiritual maturity. Nor is it attained in a 
day. The feelings are wayward and insur¬ 
gent, and have to be held down with a firm 
hand. The strongest soul has to watch and 
pray that he enter not into temptation; for if 
the floodgates are left open he will be taken 
off his feet, and swept along like a feather 
caught in a torrent. The body, from which 
our animal passions spring, must needs be 
subjected to severe discipline in order to keep 
it under, and give the spirit the upper hand. 


106 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


The unruly tongue must be held in with bit 
and bridle, that angry words may not leap to 
the lips. “Anger,” says Horace, “is momen¬ 
tary madness, so control your passion or it 
will control you.” The same is true of every 
other passion. It must be held in leash, for 
if let slip it will work havoc. Emotion is that 
which moves, but like every other force it 
needs to be regulated; and the measure in 
which it is used to answer useful ends indi¬ 
cates the measure of our self-control. 

3. A self-controlled man must have an edu¬ 
cated, disciplined, and thoroughly trained will. 
The will is the center of personality. It oc¬ 
cupies the position of president in the united 
states of thought and feeling. It is the gov¬ 
ernor of the engine, regulating its movements ; 
the power that determines whatjthe course of 
life will be. Before its imperial edicts diffi¬ 
culties apparently insurmountable give way; 
by arousing relaxed powers to fresh endeavor 
it turns the battle to the gate, plucks victory 
from the jaws of defeat; so that the erst¬ 
while beaten soul, rising from the dust, goes 
on his triumphant way, from strength to 
strength, until he attains some measure of 
that ideal manhood for which he was origi¬ 
nally created. 


SELF- vs. DIVINE-CONTROL 107 


By following a system of mental gymnas¬ 
tics much may be done to develop the power 
of self-control. The gift that is within us 
may be stirred up, and built up. But this is 
not sufficient. There is a limit to human 
power, and there are times in the life of every 
man when he loses control of himself, and 
feels himself to be as a reed shaken by the 
wind. At such a time he needs reinforce¬ 
ment; he needs some one to take his ill-regu¬ 
lated, broken life, and make it over; he needs, 
along with any measure of self-control which 
he may recover, divine control, overtopping 
it, and working through it. Without this 
there is no certainty that any life will come 
out right. 

The whole universe is governed by a Higher 
Power, and it was never meant that man 
should set up an independent government. 
When he tries to be his own master he makes 
a dismal failure of it. The responsibility of 
controlling his own life is too great a burden 
for him to assume. Spiritualists speak of a 
medium as being under the guidance of his 
“control.” Socrates said that his life was di¬ 
rected by his daemon, or attendant spirit. The 
Christian is controlled by Christ. Whatever 


108 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


degree of self-mastery he attains, he attrib¬ 
utes to him. Instead of saying 

“I am master of my fate, 

I am captain of my soul;” 

he says 

“Christ is Master of my life, 

Christ is Captain of my soul.” 

Passing all other earthly leaders he looks up 
into his face and says, “Captain, my Captain!” 
As the captain of his salvation made perfect 
in his manhood and Saviourhood through suf¬ 
fering, he gives to him undying allegiance, 
and vows to follow him through storm and 
sunshine, through defeat and success, until he 
passes with him into the light of his eternal 
glory. 

The uncontrolled man is the man who is the 
least able to control himself the man who 
has not learned to obey is the man who is 
least fitted to rule. So long as man has not 
yielded submission to the supreme authority 
the rebellious passions which rage within his 
breast will snap asunder all external restraints 
as Samson broke the green withes by which 
he was bound. 

“He is a freeman whom the Lord makes free, 
And all are slaves besides.” 


SELF- vs. DIVINE-CONTROL 109 


A butterfly holding the reins which lie upon 
the neck of a dragon, is a caricature presented 
in the Museum at Naples, representing Seneca 
endeavoring to restrain by philosophy the pas¬ 
sions of the imperial scapegrace Nero, his 
pupil. That picture is deeply suggestive. It 
reveals the consciousness of man as to the 
utter futility of all earth-born help; and leaves 
an aching void for the added thought which 
Christianity has to offer—that a soul riding 
to ruin upon the dragon of unhallowed pleas¬ 
ure can be saved only by having the hands 
that hold the reins covered by the unseen hand 
of the Divine Deliverer. 

AFFIRMATIONS. 

I control and am controlled. 

Self-mastery is mine through Christ. 

I am at once Lord of myself, and vassal of my 
Lord. 

I sit upon the throne of power, as vicegerent of 
the King. 
























CHAPTER XVI 


THE HIGHEST SELFHOOD 

Not “the higher selfhood/’ but the highest 
selfhood; not the higher life, but the highest 
life ought to be the aim of religious endeavor. 
Every upstruggling soul should strive for the 
best. He should seek the greatest enrich¬ 
ment of life that is possible to him; he 
should seek to bring out in his character the 
divine idea expressed in his nature. In a 
word, he should seek to be the man God meant 
him to be. 

How is the highest selfhood to be attained ? 
No question could be more vital. 

1. It is to be attained by self-repression . 
That is the first step. There is in man some¬ 
thing that waits to be developed, and some¬ 
thing that needs to be destroyed; seeds of 
good that wait to be cultivated, and weeds 
of evil that need to be rooted out. It is a 
matter of general experience that there is in 
human nature a principle of evil that requires 
111 


112 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


to be extirpated, a divided consciousness that 
requires to be unified; insurgent passions that 
require to be quelled; a polluted fountain 
that requires to be purified. Everyone who 
has attained the highest selfhood has had 
many a hard tussle with himself to keep his 
body under, and to keep the spirit on the top. 
He has had to endure self-crucifixion; to 
practise self-denial; to compel himself to do 
hard and disagreeable things; and instead of 
following the line of the least resistance, fol¬ 
low the line of heroic self-sacrifice. 

One of the marked characteristics of much 
of the religion of the present day is its soft¬ 
ness. It lacks virility; it fails to show the 
print of the nails. When asked to suffer, it 
imitates the pilgrim who, when the penance 
was imposed upon him of walking a certain 
number of miles with peas in his boots, took 
the precaution to boil the peas before setting 
out on his journey. Self-denial is displaced 
by self-indulgence; self-repression by self- 
assertion ; the spirit is under and the body is 
on top. 

2. By self-expression. The repression and 
suppression of the lower self is to be followed 
by the expression of the real and better self. 
Personality is not to be submerged. Religion 


THE HIGHEST SELFHOOD 113 


is to be natural. Every man is to think for 
himself, act for himself. His soul has rights 
which he is bound to respect. His individual¬ 
ity he is to protect, and refuse to be con¬ 
formed to some shape or type alien to his 
nature. The city of God has twelve gates by 
any one of which a man may enter. One 
enters by the gate of the intellect, another by 
the gate of the emotions, another by the gate 
of the mystic touch, another by the lowly gate 
of practical, commonplace service. Every one 
must find his own way in. He must be him¬ 
self, his better self; he must be an original, 
not a copy; he must give to his soul free ex¬ 
pression and live his own life as one who is 
accountable to the God who made him. 

3. By self-expansion. Brierly has well said 
that the chief business of life is to grow a soul. 
No man ought to be content to remain as he 
is. He ought to strive after self-improve¬ 
ment. It ought to be his daily endeavor to 
widen his horizon, to increase his capacity, to 
enlarge his power, that he may become a big¬ 
ger and better man. 

The exhortation of Paul to the Corinthians, 
“Be ye enlarged” (II Eph. 6:13), means that 
it is the duty of every Christian to keep his 
life from becoming poor and paltry. He is to 


114 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


seek enlargement of soul that his world may 
be enlarged; he is to seek to grow in all the 
elements of moral manhood, to have his inner 
life deepened and widened that the circle of 
his influence may be enlarged. He is to grow 
a soul that he may have a better soul to use 
in the service of others. 

The movement of the age is towards a 
larger life, and the movement of a normal 
Christian life is in the same direction. There 
is a growing desire to feel the pulsation of 
stronger, larger life—a life that keeps step 
with the unfolding purpose of God; a life, 
which however much it may be now ‘‘cribbed, 
cabined, confined,” may be a preparation for 
the larger life to which heaven invites us all. 

4. By self-realization. Life is not all 
struggle. It has in it something of the satis¬ 
faction of attainment, something of the joy 
of realization. To come to one’s self, to give 
voice to one’s soul; to give embodiment to 
one’s ideals; to realize one’s aims; to fulfill 
one’s purposes; to finish a bit of honest work, 
to which the Master of all good workmen can¬ 
not fail to give his approval; to have proven 
faithful in the discharge of some great trust, 
to have been useful to others in redressing 
wrongs, in lifting from aching shoulders 



THE HIGHEST SELFHOOD 115 


heavy burdens, and bringing sunshine into 
darkened lives, is to do things worth living 
for. Viewed in the light of divine perfection 
there may be much in our work to humble 
us, but if it has been worth doing, and we 
have put into it the utmost of our power, we 
ought to find a measure of satisfaction in it. 
Every man who proves his own work and 
finds it genuine has a right to ^have his glory^- 
4ag4n^egard-to himself alone,‘ and not of his 
neighbor” (Gal. 6:4). What is done is done, 
and of the reward of his work no one can rob 
him. 

5. By acquiring a new self . Before seek¬ 
ing for fulness of self-expression it is neces¬ 
sary that we have the proper self to express. 
In seeking to be himself many a man would 
be giving expression to that which he had bet¬ 
ter conceal. Change in selfhood must often 
come before development in selfhood. 

The distinctive thing about a divine religion 
is that it has power to change men. There is 
the case of Saul, to whom the promise was 
given, “Thou shalt be turned into another 
man” (I Sam. 10:6, 7). This is something 
more than a promise of being made a better 
man—an improved edition of the old man. 
The “other” man is indeed a better man, but 



116 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


he is also a different man, a man with differ¬ 
ent tastes, ideals and aims; a man whom no¬ 
body would identify as the same man; a man 
in whom all old things have passed away, and 
all things have become new. 

In one of his poems Tennyson exclaims: 


r 

“And ah for a man to arise in me, 

That the man that I am may cease to be/ 


When the potter’s vessel is marred in the 
making, what does he do? Does he cast his 
clay away? No, he mixes it over and makes 
it into another vessel as seems good to him. 
Alas, how many have got marred in the pot¬ 
ter’s hand, and need making over. They are 
not what God meant them to be; they have 
not fulfilled his ideal in their lives. They 
need to be made over upon a new pattern. 

Divine and human activity blend. We open 
our hearts to God, we give our misshapen lives 
into his hands, and he comes into us and 
makes us over. We make ourselves, and yet 
we are not self-made. We are what we and 
God together have made us. Our highest 
selfhood is attained when we are possessed 
of God, and act freely, as we are acted upon 
by the Divine Actor. 


THE HIGHEST SELFHOOD 117 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

I will not allow the good to be enemy to the best. 

I will endeavor to grow a better soul than the 
soul I have. 

I will make the divine idea expressed in my 
nature the ideal which I strive to realize in my life. 

I will labor for the enriching of self that I may 
increase my contribution to the enrichment of the 
world. 



CHAPTER XVII 


THE POWER BEHIND 

While much of the prevailing thought 
within the circle of the modern cults is man- 
ward rather than Godward, earthward rather 
than heavenward, by many of the leaders the 
working of divine power in and through the 
ordinary process of the mind is taken for 
granted; God is felt to be the underlying 
realty in life; the ultimate realty of thought; 
the supreme object of human quest; the 
stream of tendency by which man’s little boat 
is upborne, and carried forward to its destined 
haven. Yet when the inworking power of 
God is assumed, it is often hesitatingly ac¬ 
knowledged; and when acknowledged at all 
the tendency is to put it last rather than first, 
and to say, “I and God,” instead of, “God and 
I.” Correctness of statement is often a mat¬ 
ter of emphasis; and when the emphasis in 
religion is put upon man rather than upon 
God, the balance of truth is lost. As the 
Realty of Realties, God is at the center of 
119 


120 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


the universe; and in him the mind and heart 
of man must find their final goal and resting 
place. 

To many God is merely a presence, vague, 
shadowy, intangible; a principle or essence 
diffused through space. To others he is a 
person, living and loving; one with whom they 
can hold personal relations; one with whom 
they can enjoy personal communion. It is a 
great gain when this latter view is attained; 
and the Power behind all things is seen to be 
vital, and all the movements of life within 
and around are seen to be the throbbings of 
an Infinite heart. It is still greater gain when 
the Power behind all things is seen to be 
moral, and the government of the world 
comes to be looked upon as conducted for the 
furtherance of moral ends. But the greater 
gain of all comes when the Power behind all 
things is seen to be working not merely for 
righteousness but for redemption. This is the 
Christian view. In a world where things 
have gone wrong God is working to put them 
right; in a ruined world he is working for 
repair; in a disordered world he is working 
to bring things into harmony with his pre¬ 
destined plan. His saving, healing, restoring 
power is ever at work; and just as man opens 


THE POWER BEHIND 


121 


his soul to it, and cooperates with him in con¬ 
veying it to others, are those redemptive ends 
attained upon which the heart of God is set. 

The ceaseless activity of a redeeming God 
is the ultimate ground of human hope. With 
all the relieving light that can be thrown upon 
it, life at the best is a painful mystery. It 
would be a bitter mockery as well did we not 
believe that back of all our struggling lies 
the Eternal will working for us; and that 
there is no wrong tendency which it cannot 
enable us to check; no wrong habit which it 
cannot enable us to overcome; no ideal right¬ 
eousness which it cannot enable us to achieve. 

In harmony with the idea that the Power 
behind all things is working for redemption. 
Jesus revealed God as a Father seeking his 
children; giving himself to them; suffering 
vicariously for their sins, that he might melt 
them to repentance, and win them back. But 
what has not always been recognized in the 
teaching of Jesus is that he unites the thought 
of God’s Fatherhood with that of his im¬ 
manence, so as to make the idea of God 
potentially redemptive, by leading men to dis¬ 
cover in Universal Life by which they are 
haunted the Universal Father by whom they 
are loved. Mark his epoch-making words:— 


122 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


“The hour cometh and now is, when the true 
worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit 
and truth, God is spirit, and they that wor¬ 
ship him must worship in spirit and truth” 
(John 4:23, 24). These words make it clear 
that God who is spirit is also Father; that 
the Presence which pervades all things is a 
fatherly Presence; yea, the very Presence of 
the Father Himself. In his “Highest Pan¬ 
theism,” Tennyson, evidently thinking of these 
words, thus exhorts: 

“Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with 
Spirit can meet— 

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands 
and feet.” 

To that exhortation should be added, 
“Speak to Him, also, because he is the Spirit- 
Father, who knows and understands; and in 
the bosom of whose infinite compassion every 
child of his can pillow his head in the hour 
of his desolation. As spirit he is near; as 
Father he is knowable. As Father he has re¬ 
vealed himself in Christ; as Spirit he reveals 
himself in the soul. In the light and joy of 
his fatherly presence we walk by faith and 
not by sight. Yet we are as sure of him, and 
of the constancy of the operations of his re- 


THE POWER BEHIND 


123 


deeming love, as we are of the operations of 
the final forces of nature. In all the wide 
world there is nothing upon which we can so 
confidently count as upon his sympathy and 
help. Is it any wonder that men pray to him ? 
Is it any wonder that they make him the ob¬ 
ject of their confidence and worship? 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

God is mine, and I am his. 

God is for me, and not against me. 

God is ever at work for my redemption. 
God is the soul of the universe. 

God is my Father, and I am his child. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE HIGHER ENVIRONMENT 

We are reminded in those days of the part 
which our earthly environment has to play in 
the shaping of character and destiny; what 
we are apt to overlook in the part which our 
higher environment has to play within the 
same sphere of action. If our earthly en¬ 
vironment is great, our heavenly environment 
is greater; if our earthly environment is often 
against us, our heavenly environment is al¬ 
ways for us. 

In God “we live, and move, and have our 
being.” He is the ground of our existence, 
the source of our sustenance. All our springs 
are in him. We came from him, we return 
to him, we live in him; our true life is real¬ 
ized in union with him. 

As adjustment to environment is the first 
law of physical life, it is also the first law of 
spiritual life. A fish cannot live out of water, 
an animal out of the air, nor can man live 
out of God. He has no independent life. 
Severed from God he withers and dies. In 
God he lives and moves and has his being 
125 


126 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


with respect to his higher life as well as with 
respect to his lower life. 

This is the thought that lies at the heart of 
Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith; 
namely, adjustment to environment. And 
that begins with adjustment to God with re¬ 
spect to sin. There can be no such thing as 
getting right with God until the question of 
sin is settled. Friendship with God is im¬ 
possible except through reconciliation. When 
Paul says, “Being justified by faith we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ” (Rom. 5:1), his argument is that 
through the cross of Christ comes repent¬ 
ance, through repentance comes forgiveness, 
and through forgiveness comes adjustment, 
and through adjustment comes peace. This 
adjustment, which Paul describes as receiving 
the at-one-ment or reconciliation (Rom. 5:11), 
is a matter of personal experience. It takes 
place within the soul of the believer. But it 
does not end there. It becomes an organizing 
force working frprp within outwards; bring¬ 
ing man into adjustment to his earthly as well 
as his heavenly environment, and putting him 
right as to his relation with his fellowmen as 
well as with God. 

From adjustment comes harmony—har- 


THE HIGHER ENVIRONMENT 127 


mony with God, and with his perfect will. 
This includes resignation, submission, and 
complete surrender. To bring man into har¬ 
mony with the divine will is the end of all 
religious endeavor. The problem of life is 
simplified when its manifold objects of de¬ 
sire and pursuit have been reduced to one— 
the will of the Father. A divided will, a will 
that is drawn in opposite directions is like 
“the surge of the sea, whirled and swayed by 
the wind”—a will that is brought into oneness 
with God is like the ocean depths which are 
undisturbed by the fiercest storms. When the 
soul has passed through the struggle which 
belongs to the initial stage of the Christian 
life, and there is realized the “oned” life of 
which the English mystic, Juliania of Norwich 
speaks; a life whose aim is single because all 
its motions are controlled and directed by the 
Supreme Will into which it has been fused— 
it is brought into harmony with the order of 
the universe. Then is verified the saying of 
Dante, “In his will is our rest”; for when this 
adjustment is made every element of discord 
is taken out of life, its complete harmoniza¬ 
tion with the Perfect Will is effected, and 
something is henceforth known of what the 
life of heaven is like. 


128 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


The Scripture injunction, “Keep yourselves 
in the love of God” (Jude 21), might be 
rendered: Keep yourselves in your higher en¬ 
vironment; abide in it as the native air and 
sustaining element of your soul’s true life; let 
God’s love possess you; let it express itself 
in you, and through you; let it have its way 
with you, so that it may produce the “oned” 
heart, from which the “oned” will comes. 
Those who keep themselves in the love of 
God come to resemble him in the essential 
quality of his nature; for “God is love.” To 
dwell in God is to dwell in love, and to dwell 
in love is to dwell in God. This is what is 
meant by becoming “partakers of the divine 
nature”; it is to become Godlike in love; it is 
to become vibrant to every motion of the 
divine heart; responsive to every urge of the 
divine will; cooperative with every outgoing 
of divine activity. So real and practical is 
this heart-union that all who experience it 
may be said to blend so completely into the 
life of God that for them to live is for God 
to live in them, and through them. 

AFFIRMATIONS. 

God lives with me, and I live with Him. 

God lives in me, and I live in Him. 

God lives for me, and I live for Him. 


CHAPTER XIX 


HOW TO WIN OUT 

^1 

In order to win outJn life two things are 
necessary—self-reliance, and reliance upon 
God. These two things are not exclusive the 
one of the other. They are the two wings by 
which man is to soar; the two oars by which 
he is to propel his boat. Take either away and 
the highest progress is impossible. 

A man to succeed must have faith in him¬ 
self. He must believe in his ability to do 
what others have done, and to work out his 
own destiny. He must not be a feather tossed 
upon the stream, but a living soul cutting his 
way against the current. He must “will to 
win.” Said Virgil concerning the winning 
boat crew, “They are able because they think 
they are able.” To doubt one’s self is to lose 
the battle before a blow has been struck. 

God has not made goodness easy. It is not 
something into which we can float, but some¬ 
thing for which we have to fight. To achieve 
it we have to summon to the struggle “all that 
is within us.” In the final issue everything 
will depend upon the strength of the forces 


130 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


which we have gathered together with the 
citadel of the soul. 

The emphasis which Emerson has put upon 
self-reliance is altogether a wholesome one. 
It has supplied a needed tonic, and roused the 
slumbering powers of the soul into action. 
Especially valuable has it been in supplying 
an antidote to the unmanly attitude of undue 
reliance upon others. It has been made to 
appear an ignoble thing to be a parasite or a 
drone—living upon others; to be a consumer 
rather than a producer; and to eat one’s 
* bread in the sweat of another man’s brow. 
Instead of falling back helplessly upon others 
every man ought to draw upon his own re¬ 
sources; develop his own powers; stand upon 
his own feet; live his own life; increase by 
trading his own talents; pay his own way in 
the world; and live in all respects a life of 
manly independence such as befits a being 
made in the image of God. 

But when the antithesis is self-reliance, 
upon God, that is another matter. A declara¬ 
tion of independence comes with poor grace 
from the lips of a puny mortal who cannot 
draw a single breath save by the will and 
grace of the Higher Power. In dependence 
upon God, man’s entire life, physical and 


HOW TO WIN OUT 


131 


spiritual, is rooted. In God he lives. He is 
sustained by his nurturing love; protected by 
his sheltering care; upheld by his unfailing 
power. He lives because God lives. 

However loath he may be to acknowledge it, 
in his heart of hearts man knows that he 
needs God. It is a matter of universal ex¬ 
perience that in his utmost extremity he does 
not look around or within, but above. He in¬ 
stinctively feels that from thence cometh his 
help. If true to the call of his spirit he will 
pray. For what is prayer but the cry of the . 
insufficient to the All-Sufficient? Sooner or 
later every man comes to an end of himself, 
and of all human help. He is driven back to 
God from the conviction that he has nowhere 
else to go. All human resources are inade¬ 
quate; especially his own. His paradoxical 
situation is well described in the lines of a 
modern poet: 

“Should any to himself for safety fly, 

The way to save himself, if any were, 

Were to fly from himself.” 

And when he flies from himself where can he 
go to better himself save to the one whose 
resources are infinite? When every earthly 
stream runs dry, what can any mortal do to 


132 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


keep his soul alive but hie himself away to the 
upper springs which flow among the moun¬ 
tains of God? 

One of the things for which man depends 
upon God is wisdom . No one is equal to the 
solving of his life’s perplexing problems. 
“The way of a man is not in himself.” “It is 
not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” 
Every man needs some one wiser than him¬ 
self to unravel for him life’s tangled skein. 
Listen to Abraham Lincoln as he declares 
that when weighted down with the cares of 
state he found that his own wisdom and skill, 
and the wisdom and skill of those around him, 
were inadequate for the day’s demands; and 
that there was nothing left for him to do but 
to seek the counsel of the All-Wise—which 
counsel he implicitly accepted and followed. 
This need of divine enlightenment and direc¬ 
tion the strongest natures have felt. It is the 
human, the limited, and the fallible within us 
that cries out: 

“I could not live without Thee, 

I cannot stand alone, 

I have no strength or goodness. 

No wisdom of my own” 

In order that we lose not our way, and 
make a failure of life, we need, oh how much 


HOW TO WIN OUT 


133 


we need to gain God’s point of view; to see 
light in his light; and to be led step by step 
by his guiding hand in the path of his own 
choosing. 

Another thing that all men need is strength. 
They need the undergirding of a power from 
above and beyond their own. Men differ as to 
natural strength. Some are living dynamos, 
brimful of energy and efficiency. Others are 
constitutionally weak; and what little power 
they originally possessed is often thrown away 
in self-indulgence, until they come to a state 
of utter bankruptcy. To the latter class 
Christianity comes with its gospel of help. 
“To him that hath no might it increaseth 
strength.” Concerning the weak brother, it 
says, “He shall be made to stand, for the Lord 
hath power to make him stand,” and this 
power is always ready to break into the soul 
that seeks him, and opens toward him. From 
the pit into which man has heedlessly slipped, 
or into which he has been wickedly pushed, 
the divine arm is long enough and strong 
enough to lift him out. And that down- 
stretched arm is always within reach. Thomas 
Arnold of Rugby was wont to say that the 
worth of an educational institution is to be 
determined by what it can do for the bottom 


134 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


boy. The worth of a religion is to be deter¬ 
mined by what it can do for the bottom man 
—the man who is down and out—the man 
whose life is an utter ruin. It is also deter¬ 
mined for what it can do for the strong man 
in his weak moments, when his philosophy of 
life gives way, as in the case of Marcus 
Aurelius, the noblest of the Stoics, who broke 
in two upon the death of his only daughter. 
Has it recuperative power? Can it set a man 
on his feet again? Can it impart unto him a 
new power by which he will henceforth be 
able to live a victorious life? This Chris¬ 
tianity professes to be able to do so. 

There is an illustrative story of a Spartan 
king who made a great feast for a favorite 
general, but on the day appointed the general 
died. Being wishful not to disappoint his in¬ 
vited guests the king dressed up his general 
in his uniform, and attempted to seat him at 
the table. Finding difficulty in giving to him 
the semblance of life, he gave the project up, 
remarking, “It will not do, he needs something 
within.” That is what man needs to stand up¬ 
right, and to walk in the way of righteousness 
—he needs something within—he needs that 
vital power which can be found only by com¬ 
ing into connection with the source of life. 


HOW TO WIN OUT 


135 


Thus it becomes evident that between two 
opposite poles of thought the whole truth 
upon this subject lies. Man is to rely upon 
himself, and at the same time he is to rely 
upon God. The clarion call, “Quit ye like 
men; be strong,” has for its counterpart, “Be 
strong in the Lord, and in the power of his 
might.” Develop and use your own power 
to its utmost, but at the same time take hold 
of Heaven's help. It is in alliance with God 
that man succeeds in the spiritual as in the 
natural realm. By himself he can accomplish 
nothing in either sphere of action. It is in 
the spiritual sphere, however, that he is most 
apt to come short in the application of this 
principle. The proper balance was observed 
by Paul, who upon saying, “I of my own self 
can do nothing,” immediately added, “I can do 
all things through Christ who strengtheneth 
me.” This is the true Christian position; not, 
“I myself” but “God and I together.” 

“I cannot do it alone, 

The waves rise fast and high, 

And the fogs close chill around, 

And the light goes out of the sky; 

But I know that we two 
Shall win the end— 

God and I.” 


136 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


When Philip II, swollen with pride, ex¬ 
claimed, “Time and I against any two,” he 
cut a sorry figure. Very different would his 
end have been had he exclaimed: “God and 
I against any two.” The soul that does not 
make the great alliance is sure to fail in life's 
struggle; and the soul that makes it is just 
as sure to win. 

AFFIRMATIONS. 

There is some way for me to succeed, if I can 
only find it. 

The highest success will be missed unless I win 
life’s true end. 

Apart from God worth-while success cannot be 
attained. 

Linking up with God failure is impossible, for he 
will be responsible for my success. 


CHAPTER XX 

TRUE SUCCESS 

God certainly wants us all to succeed in 
life; he expects us to succeed; he has made it 
possible for us to succeed. And yet, alas, 
upon how many lives is failure written. But 
there are no inevitable failures; and there are 
no failures that may not be turned into vic¬ 
tories. No matter how hard the fight may go 
it is possible to win out at last. 

But before we can decide whether life has 
been successful or not, the question to be 
considered is, What is a successful life? 
What is the standard by which human success 
is judged? Was the life of Jesus successful? 
Undoubtedly not, if judged by the worlds 
standard. And yet it is by this life that the 
value of every other life is ultimately to be 
tested. 

The three things which are generally re¬ 
garded as constituting the elements of a suc¬ 
cessful life are wealth, health, and happiness. 
But are these essential to success? 

137 


138 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Take wealth. Wealth is good, but it is not 
the chief good. Yet it is generally so re¬ 
garded. The popular conception of a suc¬ 
cessful man is one who begins life as a poor 
boy, and by pinching, and hoarding, and 
scheming, becomes a multimillionaire. When 
a man dies his success is generally estimated 
by the material wealth he has left behind him, 
rather than by the spiritual wealth he has 
taken with him. The world may say, He died 
rich; while the angels say, He died poor. Ac¬ 
cording to Christ’s standard “a man’s life con- 
sisteth not in the abundance of things which 
he possesses.” It consisteth in what he is 
rather than what he has. 

It is a significant fact that we speak of 
material things as “goods”; meaning by that 
good things; as if in them was to be found 
the summitm bonum of human existence. De¬ 
sirable they are, but they are not the chief 
good, and are not essential to a successful life. 
Some of the noblest of lives have been lived 
in the midst of the most abject poverty. The 
poet Burns, with practical sagacity, declares: 

“They who fa’ in fortune’s strife 
Their fate we shouldna censure, 

For still the important end of life 
They equally may answer.” 


TRUE SUCCESS 


139 


Even if stripped to the bone they may give 
sympathy, love, friendship—gifts more pre¬ 
cious than gold. Among the world's great¬ 
est benefactors have been those who had to 
say, “Silver and gold have we none, but such 
as we have give we unto you.” One gave an 
immortal song, another an immortal picture, 
another an epoch-making invention. They 
gave what they had. Of them it might be 
said, “Poor yet making many rich; having 
nothing, and yet possessing all things.” 

Poverty is never extolled in the New Testa¬ 
ment. Jesus did not say “Blessed are the 
poor”; but he did say, “Blessed are ye poor”; 
that is, blessed are ye whose poverty is only 
of an outward kind—for yours is the king¬ 
dom—to you belong the riches of the spiritual 
realm. 

Nothing but disaster can come from giving 
the primacy to material things. The end of 
life is not a bigger bank account, but bigger 
souls. There are those “whose plenty makes 
them poor,” and there are those whose poverty 
makes them rich; there are those who are 
“rich towards God,” and poor towards men; 
and those who are rich towards men, and poor 
towards God. Riches are not to be despised; 
and if honorably won and wisely used they 


140 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


add to life’s enlargement; but if a man’s pos¬ 
sessions are merely material; if, with all his 
getting he has missed ‘‘the true riches”—the 
riches of the spirit—he will find at last that 
although fortune may have poured into his 
lap gifts beyond ambition’s wildest dreams 
he has drawn a blank in life’s lottery. 

2. Health. Health is good, but it is not the 
chief good. A sound mind in a sound body 
is the ideal condition; but life is seldom ideal; 
and often we find a sound mind in a diseased 
body, and sometimes an unsound mind in a 
healthy body. Mind and body are often badly 
mismated. 

The body is the instrument of the mind. 
When disabled by disease it robs a man of 
his practical efficiency. Instead of helping 
him to perform his life-task, it is very much 
in the way. Sickness is a clog upon the soul. 
That good may eventually come from it is not 
to be denied, but in itself it is not good. 
While it lasts we are to bear it bravely, and 
try to extract from it what benefit we may, 
but at the same time we are to pray and labor 
for its removal. Vigorous, bounding, over¬ 
brimming health is a boon to be prized and an 
object to be eagerly sought after. 

The war against disease was never carried 


TRUE SUCCESS 


141 


on more intelligently, aggressively, and suc¬ 
cessfully than at present. The vast army of 
healers, regulars and irregulars, may not be 
well mobilized, but they are driving towards 
the same end; and each separate detachment 
is equally certain that to it belongs the great¬ 
est measure of success. They all keep assur¬ 
ing us that the enemy is on the run; and that 
his total rout is not far off. However that 
may be, we know that up to the present all 
attempts to combat disease have been only 
partially successful. It is still with us, and it 
has a firm footing. We are all open to its 
attacks. Besides being liable to accidents, we 
are the victims of hereditary tendencies to 
disease, and the prey of all sorts of disease¬ 
breeding microbes. In spite of any precaution 
any day we may find ourselves hors de com¬ 
bat, and carried to the rear. 

Is this world only for the well? Is there 
no place in it for the sick? Is it not possible 
to triumph over sickness, and in spite of it 
answer the end of life ? What is the record of 
history upon this point? Is it not that physi¬ 
cal dwarfs have often been moral giants; that 
bed-ridden invalids have been ministering 
angels; that from pain-racked bodies has 
come the sweetest music; that in the fires of 


142 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


suffering character has been refined; that 
physical infirmity has often proved a spur to 
the highest endeavor; and that from the 
broken alabaster vase has come the sweetest 
fragrance? Take from the world the con¬ 
tributions to its weal made by the sick and 
the infirm and it would be greatly impover¬ 
ished. 

The present age has a shrinking from sick¬ 
ness, a dread of pain, a horror of death. Peo¬ 
ple want to live long; and no class of litera¬ 
ture is more popular than that which attempts 
to show how longevity is to be attained. But 
is old age always a blessing? Is the value of a 
life to be tested by its length ? Is it not better 
to live well than to live long? May not a 
life cut off in its prime, or before, fulfill its 
ends in a nobler way than a life which has 
dribbled out through a hundred years of low 
or small pursuits ? Is it a thing to be mourned 
over when a brave soul goes down fighting 
with the flag flying at the mast head? 

3. Happiness. Happiness is good, but it is 
not the chief good. The chief good is good¬ 
ness. The thing for which we have been 
sent into this world is not to enjoy ourselves, 
but to develop a good character. Happiness 
will generally come when not directly sought. 


TRUE SUCCESS 


143 


If made the object of pursuit it will prove a 
will-o’-the-wisp, luring us on into the Dismal 
Swamp of disappointment. 

Our happiness must be to God a matter of 
deep concern; but he is more concerned about 
our holiness than about our happiness, about 
our character than about our comfort. Just 
because his heart is set on our highest wel¬ 
fare he will not scruple to sacrifice the one 
for the other. It is his design that out of 
life’s losses should come its greatest gains; 
out of its disasters its greatest triumphs; out 
of its sorrows its sweetest graces. Many a 
man in taking a retrospective view of life has 
been led to declare, “It was good for me that 
I was afflicted.” But he did not think so at 
the time. It was his back-sight that gave to 
him a new vision of life’s meaning, and 
brought him to discern “a soul, of goodness 
in things evil.” 

Today there is a strong tendency to ignore 
the unpleasant facts of life, and to keep back 
the cup of consolation which Christianity 
has to offer to the poor, the sick, and the 
sorrowing. The outward prosperity which in 
the Old Testament is the promised reward of 
virtue is sought, rather than the spiritual 
prosperity which is the promise of the New; 


144 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Christ is followed for the loaves and fishes, 
and the religious cult that offers the largest 
material rewards is sure to have the largest 
following. What an alluring bait, for in¬ 
stance, is that which consists in the promise 
of being shown how to obtain power “for 
healing, for creative success, and a full pocket- 
book”; and how to develop “the providing 
faculty, and money-magnet,” so as to gain 
“financial mastery.” This is a much thriftier 
way than that of losing the world to save 
one’s soul, inasmuch as by it one gains the 
world while saving his soul at the same time. 

The material benefits of a good life can 
hardly be overestimated. “Godliness is profit¬ 
able unto all things, having the promise of 
the life that now is, and of that which is to 
come.” “The meek shall inherit the earth.” 
The good man has the best of it even here. 
But if wealth, and health, and happiness be 
denied he can live a true and successful life 
without them. And if stripped bare of all 
worldly possessions, he knows that he has “for 
himself a better possession, and an abiding 


TRUE SUCCESS 


145 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

Success is my birthright. 

I was made for nobler ends than I have yet 
attained. 

My success I measure by heavenly and not by 
earthly standards, and covet only that which God 
calls success. 

The God whose interests are bound up in mine 
will enable me to attain the highest success of which 
I am capable. 









CHAPTER XXI 


IN THE MAKING 

Although at the opposite pole from sociol¬ 
ogy New Thought shows a similar tendency 
to put the emphasis upon the earth-side of 
religion. In its dread of other-worldliness it 
is apt to lean towards over-worldliness. It is 
not unwilling to take the future upon faith or 
upon chance, as the case may be, provided 
that it makes sure of the rewards of the pres¬ 
ent. In manifesting this pragmatic spirit, it 
does not differ from much of our modern 
Christianity, which fails to eternalize life by 
setting it in eternal relations; and persists in 
looking at it in its time aspects rather than 
sub specie ceternitatis. In this then there is a 
great loss. 

By describing man as a candidate for eter¬ 
nity our fathers may have obscured the 
deeper truth that he is under training for 
eternity; but they discerned the intimate and 
vital relation between the life that now is and 
the life which is to come, as we seldom do. 
The modern idea of life as an education 
rather than a probation marks a great advance 
147 




148 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


of thought; and it has implications and appli¬ 
cations of which we as yet but little dream. 
If life is from beginning to end educationary 
and disciplinary; if it is only the first stage 
in a process endless development; if its noblest 
purposes and highest ends are never fully 
wrought out under these earthly skies, we are 
forced to look to the future for the comple¬ 
tion of what is here begun. More time is 
needed than man’s brief sojourn here affords 
for the education of a soul. 

In the present stage of his educationary 
career man has been placed in a world that 
is very far from being ideally perfect; a 
world that is still in the making; a world in 
which everything is in the crucible to be made 
meet for the higher uses. As it now exists 
this is a dualistic world. In it good and evil, 
joy and sorrow, are strangely intermingled. 
Alongside of hopes fulfilled are disasters and 
tragedies. Running through the music of life 
is an undertone of anguish. “The whole crea¬ 
tion groaneth and travaileth in pain together 
until now.” It is in the throes of a great re¬ 
birth; and its labor pains are as protracted 
as was the original creation process, when 
chaos passed into cosmos. If we could see 
far enough ahead we would behold that ideal 


IN THE MAKING 


149 


world which has ever been before the mind of 
God, and of which poets and seers have 
caught fugitive glimpses; a world from which 
all sin, all sorrow and suffering have forever 
passed away. But whatever the future may 
bring, the world in which man now finds him¬ 
self is puzzling and perplexing. How can it 
be otherwise when it is still unfinished? If 
we give to it finality, and think of it as a place 
for comfort and enjoyment, it is certainly a 
miserable failure. We can think of many 
ways in which it could have been improved. 
But if we look upon it as a school of training, 
where everything has been arranged to pro¬ 
mote spiritual development, it is seen to be 
the best possible kind of a world. To those 
who come to discern the ends which this world 
was meant to secure, it has a new meaning. 
But to those who fail to see that everything is 
being subordinated to spiritual ends, and that 
the material is not only being subordinated to 
the spiritual, but is often sacrificed to it, there 
will always be happening “things hard to be 
understood.” Yet we wonder that those who 
see that through fire and earthquake comes 
the new city should not also see that through 
earthly loss and disaster may come the heav¬ 
enly kingdom. 


150 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 

But not only is this world still in the mak¬ 
ing—man himself is still in the making. 
“Man is not man as yet.” He is far from 
being what God has meant him to be, what 
he is at his best moments aspires to be, and 
what he shall yet be when God is through with 
him. He is still in the germ. His life is 
broken and fragmentary. Even when ap¬ 
parently rounded out it always suggests some¬ 
thing more to come. It resembles a rough 
outline sketch left by a master artist, which 
gives the merest hint of what is in his mind. 
Life is too short to span the entire plan and 
purpose of God; or to finish the discipline 
and training of a human soul. We have to 
look farther forward to find a condition of 
fulfillment in which all we have hoped for is 
realized; but were it not striven after life 
would be an utter failure. To say that we 
are saved by our ideals is the modern way of 
saying that we are saved by faith. 

Seeing that life is still in the making it 
cannot be expected to be free from struggle. 
“In this world ye shall have tribulation,” says 
the Master, and he adds: “but be of good 
cheer, I have overcome the world”; implying 
that in his victory we may share. The fact 
that the end of life is moral determines the 


IN THE MAKING 


151 


use of means. If that which God has in view 
in our lives is the perfecting of character he 
will order the events, and select the agencies 
best fitted to secure that end. Brooding over 
this problem, one of old asked, “Who knoweth 
what is good for a man in this life ? ,> (Ex. 
6:13). To that question there can be but one 
answer—None, but the All-Wise. 

God is ever at work upon us, seeking, with 
infinite patience and perseverance, to fashion 
us into the image of the Perfect Life. He is 
not in a hurry, for he has all the ages in which 
to work; yet he never slackens in his effort, 
for every case is urgent and allows of no let¬ 
ting up. What any life will be when infinite 
love shall have done its perfect work on it 
and in it we can but dimly guess; but the little 
we do know of the divine plan entitles us to 
say with Victor Hugo: 

“What matters it though life uncertain be, 

To all? What though the goal 
Be never reached? What though it fade and flee? 
Have we not each a soul? 

A soul that must quickly rise and soar 
To regions far more pure— 

Arise and dwell where pain can be no more, 

And every joy be sure. 


152 NEW THOUGHT CHRISTIANIZED 


Be like a bird that on a bough too frail 
To bear him, gaily sings; 

He carols though the slender branches fail, 
He knows that he has wings.” 


AFFIRMATIONS. 

Being still in the making I will be patient with 
God, and with myself. 

I am not a lump of lifeless clay in the hands of 
the Divine Potter; but have something to say about 
the shaping of my life and character. 

However painful the process of soul-making may 
be, I will submit to it bravely in view of the end 
to be gained. 

In the midst of the discouragement of the present 
I am heartened by the vision of the perfect man, 
and the perfect society, yet to be. 




























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